# Gordon Appelbe Smith artist context and auction value notes Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/gordon-appelbe-smith/ Profile generated: 2026-05-10T03:17:24.563Z Quality: high confidence, strong sources ## Artist identity - Birth date: 1919-06-18 - Death date: 2020-01-18 - Nationality: English-born Canadian - Movements: Abstraction and representation dialogue - Common media: painting, printmaking, sculpture ## About Gordon Appelbe Smith Gordon Appelbe Smith (1919–2020) was an English-born Canadian painter, printmaker, and sculptor whose seven-decade career helped shape West Coast modernism. Born in East Brighton, Sussex, he emigrated to Canada in 1933 and later studied at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Smith is recognized for expanding the dialogue between abstraction and representation, producing work that moved fluidly between gestural painting and structured composition. He taught at the Vancouver School of Art alongside contemporaries Bruno Bobak, B.C. Binning, and Jack Shadbolt, then spent 26 years at the University of British Columbia before retiring in 1982 to paint full-time. His work is held by major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art and Tate. Smith and his wife Marion established the Gordon and Marion Smith Foundation in 2002 to support arts education. He continued painting well into his nineties at his West Coast Modern home in Vancouver. ## Common works and media Smith worked across painting, printmaking, and sculpture. His paintings range from large-scale abstract canvases to more representational landscapes and figurative compositions. Printmaking — including serigraphs and lithographs — forms a significant portion of his auction presence. Collectors may also encounter drawings, mixed-media works on paper, and occasional sculptural pieces. Subjects include West Coast landscapes, abstract compositions, and explorations of form and color that bridge gestural expression with geometric structure. ## Market and appraisal context Gordon Appelbe Smith's auction market is well established with 133 catalogued lots spanning October 2003 through November 2025, 86 of which carry recorded prices. The market is anchored by Canadian post-war auction houses, with Waddington's handling the highest-value lots. Realized prices range from CAD 70 for editioned prints to CAD 27,000 for major paintings, with a median of CAD 540 and an interquartile spread of CAD 300–3,000. This wide dispersion reflects the breadth of Smith's output: editioned serigraphs and etchings cluster below CAD 500, mid-tier works on paper and smaller paintings typically realize CAD 300–1,000, and significant oil paintings from notable periods have reached CAD 4,750–18,750. Liquidity is steady at 3–4 priced lots per year across multiple houses, indicating consistent but niche demand concentrated in the Canadian auction circuit. The CAD 18,750 result for RAIN FOREST (1987) at Waddington's in November 2025 and the CAD 4,750 result for BAY OF FUNDY (1981) in June 2025 suggest that museum-quality oils from mature periods command premiums well above the median. ## Auction-house-backed market evidence Gordon Appelbe Smith's auction market is well established with 133 catalogued lots spanning October 2003 through November 2025, 86 of which carry recorded prices. The market is anchored by Canadian post-war auction houses, with Waddington's handling the highest-value lots. Realized prices range from CAD 70 for editioned prints to CAD 27,000 for major paintings, with a median of CAD 540 and an interquartile spread of CAD 300–3,000. This wide dispersion reflects the breadth of Smith's output: editioned serigraphs and etchings cluster below CAD 500, mid-tier works on paper and smaller paintings typically realize CAD 300–1,000, and significant oil paintings from notable periods have reached CAD 4,750–18,750. Liquidity is steady at 3–4 priced lots per year across multiple houses, indicating consistent but niche demand concentrated in the Canadian auction circuit. The CAD 18,750 result for RAIN FOREST (1987) at Waddington's in November 2025 and the CAD 4,750 result for BAY OF FUNDY (1981) in June 2025 suggest that museum-quality oils from mature periods command premiums well above the median. ### Appraisal notes An Appraisily appraisal for a Gordon Appelbe Smith work would begin by establishing medium (oil on canvas, acrylic, serigraph, etching, mixed media on paper), dimensions, date of execution, signature and edition details, and condition. These attributes are mapped against the 86 priced lots in the auction-record index to identify comparable sales by medium, period, and scale. Oil paintings from the 1950s–1980s abstract and landscape periods carry the strongest price signals; editioned prints (serigraphs, lithographs, etchings) trade in a lower but more liquid band. Provenance from institutional exhibitions, the Gordon and Marion Smith Foundation, or major Canadian galleries can support a premium. Condition reports should note that works on paper from mid-century may show foxing, light staining, or toning, which materially affects value. The appraiser would weigh the lot against same-medium comparables within the relevant price tier, adjusting for currency (the record set is predominantly CAD with some USD and GBP lots), market trends, and the work's specific exhibition or publication history. ### Valuation factors - [object Object] - [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] - [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/gordon-appelbe-smith/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-gordon-appelbe-smith-1919-2020-rain-forest-1987-323-c-c13a5856f3 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-gordon-appelbe-smith-canadian-1919-2020-shannon-falls-ii-42-c-ea740628ff - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-gordon-appelbe-smith-canadian-1919-2020-caulfield-5-41-c-ee9411d864 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-gordon-appelbe-smith-1919-2020-bay-of-fundy-1981-72-c-c3042959be - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-iii-b-silkscreen-by-gordon-appelbe-smith-19-c-7ed42dd8cd - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-gordon-appelbe-smith-canadian-1919-2020-arthur-s-pond-1-c-87e4fd29c0 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-gordon-appelbe-smith-canadian-1919-2020-diagonal-grey-limited-edition-silkscreen-numbered-25-of-an-edition-of-25-pencil-numbere-113-c-7ef4c2db71 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-gordon-appelbe-smith-1970-serigraph-divided-mauve-404-c-2c64365918 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-gordon-appelbe-smith-qualicum-34-c-fcd4d8ea9b - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-gordon-appelbe-smith-forest-section-3-c-08d43e0a96 ## Appraisily data basis Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from museum, library authority, and scholarly sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Gordon Appelbe Smith, identity data is grounded in records from MoMA, Tate, the Library of Congress, VIAF, RKD, and Wikidata. ## Sources - Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5584785 - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_A._Smith - VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/95738532/ - Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no98039970 - The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/5481 - Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/gordon-appelbe-smith-1954 - RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/73419