# Leon Kroll artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/leon-kroll/
Profile generated: 2026-05-10T05:16:08.779Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1884-12-06
- Death date: 1974-01-01
- Nationality: American
- Movements: American Figurative Painting
- Common media: oil painting, lithography, mosaic, mural

## About Leon Kroll

Leon Kroll (1884–1974) was an American painter, lithographer, and muralist whose career spanned more than six decades. Recognized for his figurative work, he was once described by Life magazine as "the dean of U.S. nude painters." Beyond figure studies, Kroll built a substantial body of landscape and still-life paintings. His public commissions include murals for the Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C., and a mosaic for the chapel ceiling at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Kroll's work is held in major museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Active during the heyday of mid-century American figurative painting, he maintained a representational approach while many of his contemporaries moved toward abstraction. His paintings and prints appear regularly at auction, reflecting sustained collector interest in American figurative art of this period.

## Common works and media

Leon Kroll worked across several media. His oil paintings include figurative compositions, female nudes, rural and urban landscapes, and tabletop still lifes. He was also a prolific lithographer, producing editioned prints that circulate widely at auction. A smaller number of mural commissions and one known mosaic—the Normandy American Cemetery chapel ceiling—represent his public-art practice. Works on paper, including drawings and lithographs, tend to appear more frequently in the secondary market than large-scale oils.

## Market and appraisal context

Leon Kroll's work appears frequently in the American art market, with hundreds of lots recorded at auction. Collectors most often encounter his oil paintings—particularly figurative compositions, nudes, landscapes, and still lifes—as well as lithographic prints. Provenance from a recognized gallery or inclusion in a museum exhibition can strengthen a work's value. Condition, dimensions, date of execution, and whether a work belongs to one of his well-known series are standard factors in appraisal. His public commissions and institutional holdings add historical credibility but do not directly determine individual work values. As with most mid-century American artists, auction results vary widely depending on medium, size, subject, and quality.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine structured identity research from museum, library, and authority sources with auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Leon Kroll, biographical data is grounded in the Getty Union List of Artist Names, the Library of Congress Name Authority File, VIAF, the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, and museum collection records.

## Sources

- RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/46532
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n83053016
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12061052
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/8444070/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500018087
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/3262
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Kroll