# Otto Pilny artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/otto-pilny/
Profile generated: 2026-05-30T03:18:54.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1866-06-28
- Death date: 1936-01-01
- Nationality: Swiss, Czech
- Movements: Orientalism
- Common media: oil painting

## About Otto Pilny

Otto Pilny (1866–1936) was a Swiss painter of Czech origin who became one of the more recognizable European Orientalists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born on 28 June 1866, he spent formative years in Prague before traveling to Egypt between 1875 and 1878 — journeys that defined his artistic direction. By 1885 he had settled in Zürich, where he established a career painting richly detailed genre scenes set in North Africa and the Middle East. Pilny's compositions typically feature bustling Egyptian street life, desert encampments, and encounters between Bedouin figures and European travelers, rendered with the warm palette and narrative detail characteristic of the Orientalist tradition. He is listed in the Bénézit dictionary of painters and the Schweizerisches Künstler-Lexikon, confirming his recognized place in Swiss art history.

## Common works and media

Pilny primarily produced oil paintings on canvas. His most commonly seen subjects include Egyptian street and market scenes, desert caravans, Bedouin encampments, and figurative genre compositions set in imagined or observed North African settings. Single-figure studies and smaller cabinet-format paintings also appear at auction. Works on paper or panel are less common but do surface occasionally. Editioned prints or reproductions are not a documented part of his output.

## Market and appraisal context

Otto Pilny's work appears regularly at auction, with over 200 recorded lots in major databases. Collectors most frequently encounter his Orientalist genre paintings — typically oil on canvas depictions of Egyptian or North African scenes with multiple figures. Appraisal of a Pilny painting should consider the complexity of the composition, canvas dimensions, condition (including any lining or restoration), provenance documentation, and the presence of a legible signature. Comparable realized prices from recent Orientalist art sales at major houses provide the most reliable benchmark. Because no catalogue raisonné has been published, attribution questions benefit from specialist review.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine structured artist identity research from authority files and institutional databases with auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lot data when those records are available. For Otto Pilny, sources include the Getty ULAN authority file, RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, VIAF, Wikidata, and published biographical dictionaries. Market observations are drawn from aggregated auction results and should be supplemented by professional appraisal for any individual work.

## Sources

- RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/126406
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2040157
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/135949477/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500180012
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Pilny