# Othon Friesz artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/othon-friesz/
Profile generated: 2026-05-02T02:35:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1879-02-06
- Death date: 1949-01-09
- Nationality: French
- Movements: Fauvism
- Common media: oil painting, watercolor, drawing, printmaking

## About Othon Friesz

Othon Friesz (1879–1949), born Henri Achille Émile Othon Friesz in Le Havre, France, was a French painter, illustrator, watercolorist, and graphic artist best known for his role in the Fauvist movement. Trained in his native Le Havre and later in Paris, Friesz emerged alongside contemporaries such as Raoul Dufy and Georges Braque as a leading figure in Fauvism during the mid-1900s, producing boldly colored landscapes and figure compositions characterized by expressive brushwork and vivid, non-naturalistic color. After the Fauvist period, his style shifted toward a more structured, traditional approach influenced by Cézanne and classical French painting. Friesz exhibited widely during his lifetime and his work is held in major museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate in London. He died in Paris in January 1949.

## Common works and media

Friesz worked across oil on canvas, watercolor, gouache, and works on paper. Landscape and coastal scenes — particularly of the south of France, Normandy, and the Mediterranean — are the most common subjects encountered at auction. Still lifes, figure studies, and nudes also appear regularly. Prints and graphic works, including lithographs, form a smaller but accessible segment of his market. His Fauvist-era canvases are relatively scarce compared to his later, more traditional output.

## Market and appraisal context

Othon Friesz has an established and liquid secondary market spanning over three decades, with 191 recorded auction lots and 102 priced results dating from 1993 to April 2026. The price distribution is wide: prints and minor works on paper start below $100, while the interquartile range runs from roughly $765 to $11,000 USD. Major Fauvist-period oils command significant premiums — the top recorded price exceeds $1.3 million USD. Six lots sold in the most recent 12-month period (up from three the year prior), indicating steady and improving liquidity. His work is traded across a broad roster of international houses, including Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams, Tajan, Piasa, Dorotheum, and Galerie Kornfeld, with a concentration in Paris, London, and continental European salerooms. A notable recent result is the €140,000 realized at Bonhams in June 2023 for "Le port d'Anvers," confirming strong demand for important period canvases at top-tier houses.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Othon Friesz has an established and liquid secondary market spanning over three decades, with 191 recorded auction lots and 102 priced results dating from 1993 to April 2026. The price distribution is wide: prints and minor works on paper start below $100, while the interquartile range runs from roughly $765 to $11,000 USD. Major Fauvist-period oils command significant premiums — the top recorded price exceeds $1.3 million USD. Six lots sold in the most recent 12-month period (up from three the year prior), indicating steady and improving liquidity. His work is traded across a broad roster of international houses, including Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams, Tajan, Piasa, Dorotheum, and Galerie Kornfeld, with a concentration in Paris, London, and continental European salerooms. A notable recent result is the €140,000 realized at Bonhams in June 2023 for "Le port d'Anvers," confirming strong demand for important period canvases at top-tier houses.

### Appraisal notes

Appraisily would use these 191 auction records as a comparable-sales baseline, filtering by medium, dimensions, date of execution, subject matter, and condition to bracket value. For an appraisal submission, collectors should provide clear photographs (front, back, signature detail, any labels or inscriptions), exact dimensions, medium identification, provenance history, and condition notes. Friesz's signature variations — he signed 'E. Othon Friesz' — mean attribution clarity matters; unsigned or ambiguously signed works may require a catalogue raisonné check or expert opinion. The wide price spread ($18 to $1.3M) makes medium, period, and size critical comparables filters. Decorative ceramics and prints (e.g., the Metthey collaboration) form a distinct sub-market from Fauvist oils.

### Valuation factors

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### Collector notes

- Friesz's market is broad but stratified. Collectors seeking investment-grade Fauvist paintings should focus on documented, signed oils from the 1905–1907 period with clear provenance — these are scarce and command six-figure prices at major houses. More accessible entry points exist in later watercolors, drawings, and prints, which regularly trade in the low hundreds to a few thousand dollars. Collaborative works (e.g., ceramics with André Metthey) represent a niche but documented segment. Be cautious of attribution: several recent lots at regional houses carry only generic descriptions without full cataloguing. Verify signatures against known forms ('E. Othon Friesz') and request condition reports. The recent uptick in annual lot volume (6 vs. 3 the prior year) suggests renewed market attention.

### Market caveats

- Of 191 recorded lots, only 102 (53%) have published realized prices. Unpriced lots may include bought-in, withdrawn, or post-sale negotiated results, so the true transaction rate may differ.
- The $1,308,000 maximum price represents an outlier; the median is $5,000 and the 75th percentile is $11,000. Average prices are skewed by a small number of high-value Fauvist oils.
- Some recent lots at regional houses (e.g., cast busts 'after Em') appear to be derivative or attributed works rather than autograph pieces by Friesz himself.
- All monetary figures are drawn from Appraisily's auction-record index; currencies are mixed (USD, EUR, GBP, CHF) and have not been normalized to a single currency.
- Death date sources conflict (Library of Congress: 9 January 1949; RKD: 10 January 1949). This does not affect attribution but should be noted in provenance documentation.
- Market data reflects public auction results only and does not capture private sales or dealer gallery prices.

### Market evidence sources

- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/othon-friesz/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- Invaluable: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-othon-friesz-1879-1949-adam-eve-132-c-979547d512
- Invaluable: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-achille-emile-othon-friesz-lithograph-on-paper-1379-c-6aacc9de79
- Invaluable: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-othon-friesz-achille-emile-othon-friesz-1879-1949-andre-metthey-1871-1920-fleurs-et-oiseau-90-c-2bd48fe9d0
- Invaluable: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-a-20thc-cast-bust-depicting-an-young-lady-in-the-art-nouveau-style-after-em-1006-c-d7448e28a1

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from museum records, library authority files, and published references with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Othon Friesz, biographical data is grounded in the Library of Congress Name Authority File, the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, and museum collection records from MoMA and Tate.

## Sources

- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr96003823
- RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/29525
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othon_Friesz
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q708482
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/2012
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/othon-friesz-1123
- VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/2603019/