# Marcel Vertès artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/marcel-vertes/
Profile generated: 2026-05-08T14:04:47.543Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1895-08-10
- Death date: 1961-10-31
- Nationality: Hungarian, French
- Common media: lithography, painting, illustration, etching, watercolor, engraving, costume design, drawing

## About Marcel Vertès

Marcel Vertès (1895–1961), born Marcell Vértes in Hungary to a Hungarian-Jewish family, was a painter, illustrator, lithographer, etcher, and costume designer who spent most of his career in France. After relocating to Paris around 1925, he became a naturalized French citizen and established himself across fine art and commercial illustration. Vertès worked fluently in oil, watercolor, lithography, and etching, and his draftsmanship attracted commissions in publishing, fashion, and film. He is widely recognized for winning two Academy Awards for costume design on John Huston's 1952 film Moulin Rouge. With over five hundred lots recorded at auction, Vertès remains a consistent presence in the international prints-and-works-on-paper market, appealing to collectors of twentieth-century European graphic art and cinema-related design.

## Common works and media

Collectors most frequently encounter Vertès through color lithographs, etchings, and ink or watercolor drawings, often depicting theatrical scenes, circus performers, dancers, horses, and Parisian street life. He also produced illustration commissions for books and fashion houses, as well as costume and set designs for stage and film, most notably Moulin Rouge (1952). Oil paintings by Vertès appear at auction less often than his prints and works on paper.

## Market and appraisal context

Marcel Vertès is well represented at auction, with more than five hundred recorded lots spanning original paintings, drawings, watercolors, lithographs, and etchings. Value depends heavily on medium, edition status, signature, condition, and subject matter. Original paintings and unique works on paper tend to outperform multiples in the secondary market. Signed, limited-edition prints with clear provenance hold steady collector interest, especially when they reflect Vertès's characteristic Parisian and theatrical imagery. Costume-design sketches tied to the 1952 Moulin Rouge production carry niche premium potential. Buyers should verify attribution and edition details, as Vertès produced a wide range of commercial and editorial illustrations alongside his fine-art prints.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine structured identity research from library-authority and museum-linked sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Marcel Vertès, identity data is sourced from the Library of Congress, Getty ULAN, VIAF, RKD, and Wikidata. Market observations draw on published auction-category patterns and the total lot count reflected in the Appraisily database.

## Sources

- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr94035089
- RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/80718
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/68943822/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500027464
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q521154
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Vert%C3%A8s