# Félix Labisse artist context and auction value notes Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/felix-labisse/ Profile generated: 2026-05-04T03:19:00.000Z Quality: high confidence, strong sources ## Artist identity - Birth date: 1905-03-09 - Death date: 1982-01-27 - Nationality: French - Movements: Surrealism - Common media: oil painting, works on paper (ink, wash, drawing), illustration, theatrical set and stage design ## About Félix Labisse Félix Labisse (1905–1982) was a French painter, illustrator, and stage designer whose work is associated with Surrealism. Born in Marchiennes in northern France — though some reference works cite nearby Douai — he began his career in the 1920s. He settled in the Belgian coastal city of Ostend in 1927 before relocating to Paris in 1932, where he spent most of his productive life. Labisse worked across oil painting, drawing, book illustration, and theatrical set design, and his imagery is known for dreamlike figures and fantastical compositions. His professional ties to both France and Belgium are reflected in his inclusion in the Belgian art reference Piron alongside standard French sources. Over a career spanning nearly six decades, Labisse built a substantial body of work that appears regularly at European auctions. ## Common works and media Labisse produced oil paintings on canvas, ink and wash drawings on paper, book illustrations, and theatrical set and décor designs. His subjects frequently involve Surrealist-inspired imagery: elongated figures, fantastical creatures, and atmospheric, dreamlike landscapes. Prints and illustrated editions may also appear on the market. Works span his active period from the 1920s through the early 1980s, with stylistic evolution over that long career. ## Market and appraisal context Félix Labisse maintains an active and well-documented secondary market across European and North American auction houses. The Appraisily auction record tracks 301 lots with 214 priced results spanning February 2003 through March 2026, providing a deep historical baseline. The price distribution is wide: from €25 at the low end for color lithograph multiples to €66,000 for top-tier original works, with a median of approximately €1,016 and a 75th percentile at €7,200. This dispersion reflects a market where medium is the dominant value driver — numbered lithograph editions (e.g., Chrysorapis, Lucretia, Blue Faces) routinely trade in the €40–€300 band, while original paintings and significant works on paper at blue-chip houses reach €5,000–€9,000 and above. Named auction houses include Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonhams, and Artcurial at the international level, alongside regional specialists such as Maison Jules Veilinghuis, Cornette de Saint-Cyr-Bruxelles, Aguttes, Hampel Fine Art Auctions, and Weschler's. Trailing twelve-month volume (18 lots) is down from the prior year (32 lots), suggesting a modest contraction in liquidity that may reflect broader market cycles rather than artist-specific factors. The concentration of sales through Belgian and French houses is consistent with Labisse's Franco-Belgian career trajectory. ## Auction-house-backed market evidence Félix Labisse maintains an active and well-documented secondary market across European and North American auction houses. The Appraisily auction record tracks 301 lots with 214 priced results spanning February 2003 through March 2026, providing a deep historical baseline. The price distribution is wide: from €25 at the low end for color lithograph multiples to €66,000 for top-tier original works, with a median of approximately €1,016 and a 75th percentile at €7,200. This dispersion reflects a market where medium is the dominant value driver — numbered lithograph editions (e.g., Chrysorapis, Lucretia, Blue Faces) routinely trade in the €40–€300 band, while original paintings and significant works on paper at blue-chip houses reach €5,000–€9,000 and above. Named auction houses include Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonhams, and Artcurial at the international level, alongside regional specialists such as Maison Jules Veilinghuis, Cornette de Saint-Cyr-Bruxelles, Aguttes, Hampel Fine Art Auctions, and Weschler's. Trailing twelve-month volume (18 lots) is down from the prior year (32 lots), suggesting a modest contraction in liquidity that may reflect broader market cycles rather than artist-specific factors. The concentration of sales through Belgian and French houses is consistent with Labisse's Franco-Belgian career trajectory. ### Appraisal notes An Appraisily appraisal for a Félix Labisse work would begin by establishing the medium — oil paintings on canvas command a materially different price tier from lithographs, color prints, and works on paper. The appraiser would use the 214 priced lots in the Appraisily database as a comparable-sales pool, filtering by medium, dimensions, date of execution, and auction house tier. For original paintings, the €5,000–€9,000 realized prices at Artcurial and Bonhams serve as primary comparables; for lithographs and multiples, the €40–€300 band from houses like Maison Jules Veilinghuis, Königstein, and Collective Hudson is more relevant. The appraiser would weigh condition (creasing, fading, foxing for works on paper; craquelure and retouching for oils), provenance clarity (gallery labels, exhibition stickers, collection history), signature authenticity, edition numbering for prints, and any published exhibition or literature references. Attribution is well-supported by entries in Bénézit, Vollmer, the RKD, and the Library of Congress authority file, reducing attribution risk. The absence of a catalogue raisonné means dating and authentication rely on connoisseurship and published reference entries rather than a systematic catalogue. ### Valuation factors - [object Object] - [object Object] - [object Object] - [object Object] - [object Object] - [object Object] - [object Object] ### Collector notes - [object Object] - [object Object] - [object Object] - [object Object] - [object Object] ### Market caveats - [object Object] - [object Object] - [object Object] - [object Object] - [object Object] ### Market evidence sources - undefined: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/felix-labisse/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-felix-labisse-signed-chrysorapis-limited-edition-lithograph-156-c-c1e0cc700d - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-felix-labisse-1905-1982-ces-plaisirs-qu-on-nomme-a-la-legere-physique-1963-57-c-32941819c7 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-felix-labisse-1905-1982-sans-titre-114-c-2ffc6b549f - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-felix-labisse-1905-1982-d-apres-86-c-1a37dcf28a - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-felix-labisse-1905-1982-614-c-2b67b8061e - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-felix-labisse-1905-marchiennes-1982-neuilly-sur-seine-376-c-9834f77b0f - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-felix-labisse-marchiennes-1905-neuilly-sur-seine-1982-46-c-87f472d93f - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-felix-labisse-signed-chrysorapis-limited-edition-lithograph-310-c-7224038828 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-felix-labisse-signed-chrysorapis-limited-edition-lithograph-416-c-d0f4affb6d ## Appraisily data basis Appraisily artist pages combine identity research from authority files and published reference works with auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots. For Félix Labisse, identity data is drawn from the Library of Congress, VIAF, Wikidata, and the RKD Netherlands Institute. Market data reflects the 808 lots tracked in the Appraisily auction database. No catalogue raisonné was identified in available sources. ## Sources - Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2012984 - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9lix_Labisse - VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/46763352/ - Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80137936 - RKD Netherlands Institute: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/47216 - Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500030073