# Hippolyte Petitjean artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/hippolyte-petitjean/
Profile generated: 2026-05-30T20:50:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1854-09-11
- Death date: 1929-09-18
- Nationality: French
- Movements: Post-Impressionism, Pointillism
- Common media: oil painting, watercolor, gouache, drawing

## About Hippolyte Petitjean

Hippolyte Petitjean (1854–1929) was a French painter, watercolorist, and draftsman associated with the Post-Impressionist movement and best known for his adoption of pointillism. Born in Mâcon, he trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Alexandre Cabanel before aligning with the Neo-Impressionist circle led by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. Petitjean applied the divisionist technique of placing pure color dots side by side across oil paintings, watercolors, and gouaches, producing landscapes and still lifes with a distinctive luminosity. His work is held in institutional collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Collectors encounter Petitjean's work most often at Impressionist and Modern Art sales, where his smaller-scale paintings and works on paper reflect the broader market interest in Neo-Impressionist painting at the turn of the twentieth century.

## Common works and media

Petitjean worked across several media. Oil paintings on canvas or panel, often landscapes or coastal scenes rendered in a pointillist or divisionist style, form the core of his auction presence. Watercolors and gouaches—frequently smaller-format landscapes and harbor views—appear regularly at auction and are more accessible to collectors. Drawings in pencil, charcoal, or ink are less common but do surface. Still lifes form a secondary subject category. Original prints are not a significant part of his known output. Condition, authentication, and clear provenance are important valuation considerations across all media.

## Market and appraisal context

Petitjean's auction profile is shaped by his position within the Neo-Impressionist movement, a category that draws sustained collector interest. Oil paintings with strong pointillist technique and identifiable Provenance tend to be the most sought-after. Works on paper—watercolors, gouaches, and drawings—are more frequently available and generally priced lower than oils. Factors that can affect appraisal include the quality and completeness of the pointillist brushwork, the subject matter (landscapes are most characteristic), the work's date, exhibition history, and documented provenance. Comparable public auction records from Impressionist and Modern Art sales provide the most reliable pricing context, though Petitjean's market is narrower than that of Seurat or Signac.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from museum records, library authority files, and biographical databases with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Hippolyte Petitjean, identity data is grounded in the Getty ULAN, VIAF, the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), and the Museum of Modern Art collection record.

## Sources

- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/62988
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/4577
- VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/74648368/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500024965
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q539063
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippolyte_Petitjean
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2016100042