# Mela Muter artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/mela-muter/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T14:14:41.115Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1876-04-26
- Death date: 1967-05-14
- Nationality: Polish, French
- Movements: Naturalism, particularly in her practice before the First World War
- Common media: Painting, Watercolor, Drawing

## Portrait

![Mela Muter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Mela_Mutermilch.jpg)
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mela_Mutermilch.jpg

## About Mela Muter

Mela Muter was the professional name of Maria Melania Mutermilch, a Polish-born painter who established most of her career in France. Born in Warsaw in 1876, she moved to Paris in 1901 and began exhibiting there within several years. Her practice before the First World War has been associated with Naturalism, while biographical accounts describe vivid color and forceful brushwork as recognizable features of her painting. Muter received French citizenship in 1927. During the Second World War she took refuge in Avignon, then returned to Paris, where she lived until her death in 1967. Artist and library authority records preserve numerous versions of her name, including Marie-Mela Muter, Maria Melania Mutermilch, and Maria Melania Klingsland. These variants matter when matching exhibition catalogues, collection records, and auction listings. Collectors most often encounter her as a painter, although historical catalogue records also document watercolors and drawings.

## Common works and media

Collectors and appraisers may encounter paintings, watercolors, and drawings under Mela Muter's professional name or one of her documented name variants. Painting is the best-supported primary category, while historical exhibition and catalogue records also identify works on paper. The available source pack does not provide enough institution-grade detail to characterize recurring subjects, formal series, edition practices, or sculpture and print production.

## Market and appraisal context

An appraisal of a work attributed to Mela Muter should begin by resolving the artist's documented name variants and identifying the work type. Paintings, watercolors, and drawings should be compared within their own categories rather than treated as interchangeable. Date and career context may also affect the choice of comparable records, particularly when distinguishing work connected with her pre-First World War Naturalist phase from later production in France. Appraisily's artist record provides an auction-data starting point, but the collected source pack contains no major-auction-house essays or detailed realized-price evidence. Any valuation should therefore rely on object-specific research and closely matched public sales rather than a broad price prediction.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine public artist-identity research with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Authority-file conflicts and gaps in the collected evidence are retained rather than resolved by speculation.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q517622
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500080105
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/40215121/
- IdRef: https://www.idref.fr/032615426
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mela_Muter
- Wikipedia: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mela_Muter
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/mela-muter/