# Honoré Daumier artist context and auction value notes Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/honore-daumier/ Profile generated: 2026-04-29T18:53:43.000Z Quality: high confidence, strong sources ## Artist identity - Birth date: 1808-02-26 - Death date: 1879-02-10 - Nationality: French - Movements: Realism - Common media: lithography, oil painting, sculpture (clay busts), drawing (ink and wash), printmaking ## About Honoré Daumier Honoré-Victorin Daumier (1808–1879) was a French painter, sculptor, lithographer, and printmaker whose prolific body of work provides a vivid visual record of social and political life in nineteenth-century France. Born in Marseille and active from the Revolution of 1830 through the fall of the Second French Empire, Daumier built his reputation as a sharp satirical caricaturist, contributing thousands of lithographs to publications such as La Caricature and Le Charivari. His cartoons targeted the monarchy, judiciary, bourgeoisie, clergy, and political establishments of his era. Beyond graphic satire, Daumier produced expressive paintings and small-scale sculptural busts of contemporary types, earning recognition from later generations as a pioneering figure bridging Romanticism and Realism. Today his work is held by major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and he remains one of the most frequently encountered printmakers in the auction market. ## Common works and media Daumier is most widely known for his lithographic prints — including social satires, political caricatures, and series such as Les Bas-Bleu and Robert Macaire — which number in the thousands and appear frequently at auction. He also produced oil paintings of theater audiences, laundresses, and street life; small unpainted clay sculptural busts caricaturing political figures; and finished drawings in ink and wash. Bronze editions of his sculptural models were cast posthumously and are also encountered at auction. Print subjects range from courtroom scenes and lawyers to Don Quixote, street musicians, and domestic interiors. ## Market and appraisal context Honoré Daumier maintains a deep and liquid secondary market spanning more than two decades of documented auction activity, with 701 total lots recorded (350 with realized prices) and a date range from November 2001 through March 2026. Price dispersion is exceptionally wide — from €10 at the low end to a maximum of $665,000 — reflecting the broad spectrum of media and quality tiers in circulation. The median realized price of approximately $1,363 indicates that the typical transaction involves mid-range prints or works on paper, while the 75th percentile at $8,400 and a ceiling of $665,000 capture rarer paintings, important drawings, and significant sculptural works. Major houses including Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonhams, and Heritage Auctions appear among the top-ten most frequent sellers, alongside European specialists such as Tajan, Piasa, Ader, Galerie Kornfeld, and Auktionshaus Schwab. Recent twelve-month volume (35 priced lots) is moderately lower than the prior period (52 lots), suggesting a slight cooling in turnover but continued steady liquidity. Recent comparable sales include an oil or gouache composition (Trois Personnages) at Karl & Faber realizing €18,000, a lithograph of Un wagon de troisième classe at Galerie Kornfeld reaching CHF 80,000, and a circa-1856 drawing Le Buveur Chantang at Freeman's | Hindman realizing $25,000, illustrating the premium tier for original paintings and important drawings versus more routine lithographic impressions that commonly trade below €5,000. ## Auction-house-backed market evidence Honoré Daumier maintains a deep and liquid secondary market spanning more than two decades of documented auction activity, with 701 total lots recorded (350 with realized prices) and a date range from November 2001 through March 2026. Price dispersion is exceptionally wide — from €10 at the low end to a maximum of $665,000 — reflecting the broad spectrum of media and quality tiers in circulation. The median realized price of approximately $1,363 indicates that the typical transaction involves mid-range prints or works on paper, while the 75th percentile at $8,400 and a ceiling of $665,000 capture rarer paintings, important drawings, and significant sculptural works. Major houses including Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonhams, and Heritage Auctions appear among the top-ten most frequent sellers, alongside European specialists such as Tajan, Piasa, Ader, Galerie Kornfeld, and Auktionshaus Schwab. Recent twelve-month volume (35 priced lots) is moderately lower than the prior period (52 lots), suggesting a slight cooling in turnover but continued steady liquidity. Recent comparable sales include an oil or gouache composition (Trois Personnages) at Karl & Faber realizing €18,000, a lithograph of Un wagon de troisième classe at Galerie Kornfeld reaching CHF 80,000, and a circa-1856 drawing Le Buveur Chantang at Freeman's | Hindman realizing $25,000, illustrating the premium tier for original paintings and important drawings versus more routine lithographic impressions that commonly trade below €5,000. ### Appraisal notes Appraisily uses these documented auction records as a comparable-sales baseline, cross-referenced against the specific work's medium, dimensions, signature or plate marks, condition (foxing, trimming, margins, paper quality for prints; craquelure, relining, surface condition for paintings), provenance chain, exhibition history, and catalogue raisonné references (e.g., Delteil or Maison galerie listings for lithographs). For Daumier prints, the single most consequential factor is whether an impression is a lifetime pull from the original stone or a later restrike — this can shift value by an order of magnitude. For sculptural works, the foundry mark, edition number, and whether the piece is an original clay bust or a posthumous bronze cast are determinative. A formal appraisal would combine the Appraisily auction-record index with high-resolution photo review, measurements, condition report, and provenance documentation to place the work within the observed price distribution. ### Valuation factors - Medium: original oil paintings and important drawings command the highest prices; original stone lithographs from lifetime editions trade in the mid-range; later restrikes and reproductive prints trade significantly lower - Impression quality: early lifetime pulls with full margins are worth multiples of trimmed, foxed, or later restrike impressions - Condition: paper quality, foxing, trimming, and margin preservation are critical for prints; craquelure, relining, and surface condition for paintings - Provenance and exhibition history: documented ownership through named collections or exhibition records substantiates higher valuations - Catalogue raisonné inclusion: references to Delteil numbers (for lithographs) or recognized painting catalogues provide authentication weight - Subject matter: courtroom scenes, Don Quixote subjects, and theater-audience compositions carry premium interest among collectors - Sculpture attribution: original painted clay busts are rare and highly valued; posthumous bronze casts require foundry marks and edition numbers to assess relative value - Size and scale: larger compositions and multi-figure scenes tend to outperform small-format single-figure prints ### Collector notes ### Market caveats - Daumier's lithographs were widely reproduced and reissued both during and after his lifetime; not all impressions on the market are lifetime originals, and attribution verification is essential - Bronze casts of Daumier's sculptural models were produced posthumously over many decades; edition numbers, foundry marks, and casting date must be verified to determine relative value - The Appraisily auction-record index contains 701 total lots but only 350 with realized prices; approximately half of recent lots lack price data (unsold, bought-in, or post-sale private results), which may skew observed price distributions upward - Auction results span multiple currencies and may not all be normalized to a single base; cross-currency comparison should account for exchange rates at time of sale - Recent 12-month lot volume is lower than the prior period, which could reflect market softening, cataloguing variation, or incomplete data collection for the most recent months - Attribution verification is recommended for any Daumier work due to the large volume of reproductive prints, copies, and 'after' works in circulation ### Market evidence sources - undefined: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/honore-daumier/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-honore-daumier-marseille-1808-valmondois-1879-l-accusation-7-c-dc6227ef95 - undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-honore-daumier-1808-1879-d-apres-after-un-wagon-de-troisieme-classe-1976-215-c-19a67a0d28 ## Appraisily data basis This Appraisily artist page combines verified identity data from museum, library authority, and encyclopedic sources with publicly documented auction records, sale dates, realized prices, medium classifications, and comparable lot results when available, to support collectors researching attribution and appraisal context for works by Honoré Daumier. ## Sources - RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/20126 - Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79089112 - VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/96555949/ - Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q187506 - The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/1396 - Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor%C3%A9_Daumier