# Jean Emile Laboureur artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/jean-emile-laboureur/
Profile generated: 2026-05-04T03:34:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1877-08-16
- Death date: 1943-06-16
- Nationality: French
- Movements: Modern French printmaking; early 20th-century French painting and illustration
- Common media: etching and engraving, lithography, woodcut and wood engraving, watercolor, oil painting, book illustration

## About Jean Emile Laboureur

Jean Émile Laboureur (1877–1943) was a French painter, printmaker, and illustrator born in Nantes. Active across an exceptionally broad range of media — including etching, lithography, wood engraving, watercolor, and oil painting — he became one of the most distinctive graphic artists of early twentieth-century France. Laboureur trained in Paris and traveled to the United States and England before settling back in France, where he developed a refined, modern style of figurative engraving. He illustrated books for prominent authors and his work is held by major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He died in Penestin, Morbihan, in 1943.

## Common works and media

Laboureur's most commonly encountered works at auction include etchings and burin engravings, often depicting figurative scenes, urban views, and elegant social subjects. He also produced lithographs, woodcuts, watercolors, and illustrated books. Oil paintings by Laboureur are less frequent in the market but do appear. His collaborations with literary publishers resulted in illustrated editions that are collected both as prints and as bound volumes.

## Market and appraisal context

Jean-Emile Laboureur has a well-established and liquid secondary market centered on prints and works on paper. Appraisily tracks 184 auction lots dating from June 2004 through March 2026, with 115 carrying realized prices. The price distribution is wide but skewed toward accessible levels: the interquartile range spans approximately $150–$750 USD, with a median near $300. The ceiling at $22,000 reflects occasional premium impressions, larger or rarer compositions, or works in oil. Liquidity is healthy, with 8 priced lots in the most recent 12-month window versus 5 in the prior period, indicating steady and slightly growing demand. Major houses handling his work include Artcurial, Christie's, Bonhams, Piasa, Roseberys, Cornette de Saint-Cyr, and Rachel Davis Fine Arts, confirming broad cross-continental interest spanning Paris, London, and U.S. regional salerooms. The bulk of traded material consists of burin engravings, etchings, woodcuts, and lithographs depicting figurative scenes, urban views, and literary subjects—consistent with his reputation as one of the foremost modern French printmakers.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Jean-Emile Laboureur has a well-established and liquid secondary market centered on prints and works on paper. Appraisily tracks 184 auction lots dating from June 2004 through March 2026, with 115 carrying realized prices. The price distribution is wide but skewed toward accessible levels: the interquartile range spans approximately $150–$750 USD, with a median near $300. The ceiling at $22,000 reflects occasional premium impressions, larger or rarer compositions, or works in oil. Liquidity is healthy, with 8 priced lots in the most recent 12-month window versus 5 in the prior period, indicating steady and slightly growing demand. Major houses handling his work include Artcurial, Christie's, Bonhams, Piasa, Roseberys, Cornette de Saint-Cyr, and Rachel Davis Fine Arts, confirming broad cross-continental interest spanning Paris, London, and U.S. regional salerooms. The bulk of traded material consists of burin engravings, etchings, woodcuts, and lithographs depicting figurative scenes, urban views, and literary subjects—consistent with his reputation as one of the foremost modern French printmakers.

### Appraisal notes

Appraisily would use these 184 auction records as a comparable-sale baseline when evaluating a Laboureur work submitted for appraisal. Key data points from each comparable lot—title, medium, date of execution, edition size and number, dimensions, auction house, sale date, and hammer price—would be matched against the submitted work's photographs, measured dimensions, medium identification, signature and inscriptions, condition report, provenance chain, and any catalogue raisonné references. Because Laboureur's output is dominated by editioned prints, the edition size, impression state (e.g., before or after steel facing), plate tone, paper type, and margin preservation are critical adjustments. Original oil paintings or large-scale watercolors would require a narrower comparable set and likely command prices above the print-dominated median. Records from blue-chip houses (Christie's, Bonhams, Artcurial) tend to carry more weight as comparables than regional U.S. estates, where buyer depth is thinner.

### Valuation factors

- Medium: etchings and burin engravings dominate the market and cluster around $75–$750; lithographs and woodcuts occupy a similar band; oil paintings and watercolors can exceed the print ceiling.
- Edition: numbered editions with documented edition size and impression number are standard; lower-numbered or artist-proof impressions may carry a premium.
- Condition: foxing, toning, trimmed margins, or fading materially reduce value for works on paper; full margins and strong impressions are preferred.
- Provenance: documented gallery or collection history, Lugt collection stamps, and catalogue raisonné citations (e.g., Laboureur catalogue numbers cited in lot titles) support stronger valuations.
- Subject and period: early Cubist-influenced works (pre-1920) and literary illustrations for notable authors may command higher interest than generic genre scenes.
- Size and complexity: larger plates, multi-plate sets (e.g., Six Vues de L'Acropole), and elaborate compositions tend to outperform small single-figure prints.
- Auction house and location: results from Parisian houses (Artcurial, Piasa, Tajan, Millon) and London salerooms (Roseberys, Bonhams) tend to reflect deeper specialist buyer pools for French modern prints than U.S. regional auctions.
- Currency and market: sales occur in USD, EUR, and GBP; currency normalization is necessary for cross-market comparison.

### Collector notes

- Laboureur prints in the $150–$500 range are widely available at auction multiple times per year, making entry-level collecting straightforward.
- Premium impressions—large plates, multi-print suites, early states, or works with strong provenance—can reach $2,000–$22,000 at major houses.
- Unsigned or unauthenticated impressions should be approached cautiously; Laboureur's catalogue raisonné references are frequently cited in lot descriptions and are a reliable authentication aid.
- Book illustrations and illustrated literary editions are an accessible and often undervalued segment; collectors seeking breadth rather than rarity may find strong value here.
- Works appearing at Parisian and London houses tend to attract more specialist bidding than U.S. regional sales, which can present buying opportunities but also thinner resale liquidity.
- The slight uptick in auction volume (8 lots in the most recent 12 months vs. 5 in the prior period) suggests stable-to-growing collector interest.

### Market caveats

- Price data reflects 115 of 184 tracked lots; 69 lots have no realized price recorded, which may represent unsold lots, withdrawals, or data gaps and could skew the observed distribution.
- The $22,000 maximum is an outlier; the vast majority of lots trade below $1,000 and the median is $300. Appraisals should not anchor to the ceiling without a specific justification tied to the submitted work's rarity and quality.
- Multiple currencies (USD, EUR, GBP) are present in the record set; prices shown are not currency-normalized and direct comparison requires conversion.
- Appraisily auction signals are derived from public auction feeds and may not capture private sales, dealer transactions, or all regional auction houses.
- The artist's profile notes a Getty ULAN record (500024072) that returned a 503 error during research and could not be consulted; additional authority data may refine attributions.
- Movement associations in the existing profile are general ('Modern French printmaking') and do not specify Cubist, Art Deco, or School of Paris affiliations that may affect specialist market positioning.

### Market evidence sources

- undefined: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/jean-emile-laboureur/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-jean-emile-laboureur-daphnis-and-chole-etching-413-c-de4040f946
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-jean-emile-laboureur-ovid-amores-etching-412-c-f0ddbfcf62
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-jean-emile-laboureur-229-c-ffed046bdf
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-jean-emile-laboureur-1877-1943-les-petits-marchands-du-front-1917-25-c-9e74ca2b79
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-jean-emile-laboureur-340-c-9e0438f834

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine verified artist identity research from museum, library authority, and scholarly sources with public auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Jean Émile Laboureur, identity data is grounded in the Library of Congress Name Authority File, VIAF, RKD, Wikidata, and the Museum of Modern Art collection records.

## Sources

- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n82083621
- RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/47231
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/71393252/
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2682738
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/3329
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_%C3%89mile_Laboureur