# Patrick Caulfield artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/patrick-caulfield/
Profile generated: 2026-05-01T02:15:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1936-01-29
- Death date: 2005-09-29
- Nationality: British, English
- Movements: Pop Art
- Common media: Oil on canvas, Printmaking

## About Patrick Caulfield

Patrick Caulfield (1936–2005) was a British painter and printmaker recognized for his distinctive contribution to Post-War British art. Born and based in London, Caulfield studied at the Royal College of Art alongside David Hockney and emerged in the 1960s associated with the Pop Art movement, though his work maintained a singular visual language. He is best known for bold, graphic canvases depicting pared-down interiors and still-life scenes rendered in flat areas of color and strong outlines, often punctuated by passages of photorealistic detail. His subject matter—pottery, wine glasses, café interiors, and everyday domestic objects—gave ordinary life a striking visual clarity. Caulfield's work is held in major public collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His career spanned painting, screenprinting, and stage design, and his prints remain widely collected.

## Common works and media

Caulfield worked across painting and printmaking throughout his career. Common formats encountered at auction and in collections include oil on canvas paintings, screenprints, and lithographs. Typical subjects include still-life arrangements of pottery, bottles, and glassware; simplified interior scenes with window views; and café or restaurant settings. His prints were often produced in numbered editions. Collectors may also encounter posters and exhibition-related graphic works. Paintings from the 1960s through the 1990s represent the core of his auction market.

## Market and appraisal context

Patrick Caulfield maintains an active and well-documented secondary market spanning over three decades, with 805 auction lots recorded since 1995 and 599 carrying realized prices. His work trades regularly at top-tier international houses including Christie's, Sotheby's, and Bonhams, as well as specialist UK firms such as Forum Auctions, Dreweatts 1759, Lyon & Turnbull, and Sloane Street Auctions. The price distribution is wide but characteristic of a mid-career Post-War British artist with a strong print market: the median price sits at $915, the 75th percentile at $1,900, and a significant top end reaches $524,750—reflecting premium oil paintings at major houses. Screenprints and lithographs dominate recent trading volume and cluster in the $200–$1,100 range, while oil paintings and rarer prints command substantially more. Recent 12-month volume (27 lots) is roughly half the prior 12-month volume (54 lots), suggesting a moderate cooldown in turnover, though liquidity remains solid across UK and US salerooms.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Patrick Caulfield maintains an active and well-documented secondary market spanning over three decades, with 805 auction lots recorded since 1995 and 599 carrying realized prices. His work trades regularly at top-tier international houses including Christie's, Sotheby's, and Bonhams, as well as specialist UK firms such as Forum Auctions, Dreweatts 1759, Lyon & Turnbull, and Sloane Street Auctions. The price distribution is wide but characteristic of a mid-career Post-War British artist with a strong print market: the median price sits at $915, the 75th percentile at $1,900, and a significant top end reaches $524,750—reflecting premium oil paintings at major houses. Screenprints and lithographs dominate recent trading volume and cluster in the $200–$1,100 range, while oil paintings and rarer prints command substantially more. Recent 12-month volume (27 lots) is roughly half the prior 12-month volume (54 lots), suggesting a moderate cooldown in turnover, though liquidity remains solid across UK and US salerooms.

### Appraisal notes

Appraisily would use these 805 auction records to establish a baseline price distribution by medium, format, and period. For a specific work, the appraisal would cross-reference the item's medium (oil on canvas vs. screenprint vs. lithograph), dimensions, edition number and size for prints, signature, condition report, provenance chain, and exhibition history against the most comparable lots in the dataset. The wide spread between the median ($915) and the maximum ($524,750) underscores the importance of medium and scale: an oil painting from a recognized period with strong provenance may appraise orders of magnitude above a numbered screenprint. The dataset includes named-series works (e.g., White Ware, Some Poems by Jules Laforgue, Highlights/Stucco/Screen/Stone Wall) that allow close comparable-lot matching when the subject and edition are identified. Appraisers should also note that some recent lots at smaller US houses sold for as little as $25, which may reflect condition issues, attribution uncertainty, or unreserved estate material rather than market-wide valuation.

### Valuation factors

- Medium is the primary value driver: oil paintings from Caulfield's mature period command prices in the tens to hundreds of thousands, while screenprints and lithographs typically range from $200 to $4,000 depending on edition, size, and subject
- Named series and titled works (e.g., White Ware, Some Poems by Jules Laforgue, Garden with Pines) are more readily comparable and often attract stronger bidding than untitled or generic lots
- Edition size and number for prints: smaller editions and lower impression numbers generally carry a premium; catalog raisonné references (e.g., Cristea numbers cited in Forum Auctions lots) support attribution and comparability
- Provenance: works with museum exhibition history, major-gallery provenance, or inclusion in a recognized collection carry a significant premium over works with no documented chain
- Condition is critical for prints on paper: foxing, fading, trimming, or mounting can materially reduce value; oil-on-canvas condition (craquelure, relining, retouching) similarly affects price
- Sale venue and house: works sold at Christie's, Sotheby's, or Bonhams tend to realize higher prices than equivalent lots at regional houses, reflecting buyer confidence, cataloguing depth, and underwriting
- Currency and geography: UK-based sales in GBP (Forum Auctions, Sloane Street, Tate Ward) and US-based sales in USD (DuMouchelles, Cottone, Auctions at Showplace) form two distinct but overlapping sub-markets

### Collector notes

- Caulfield's print market is liquid and accessible: screenprints from well-known series trade regularly at UK and US regional houses, often in the $200–$1,100 range, making them a practical entry point for collectors. For buyers seeking investment-grade material, oil paintings with strong provenance at Christie's or Sotheby's represent the top of the market but require significantly more capital. Sellers should ensure prints are catalogued with their Cristea or other catalogue-raisonné reference number, as this is standard practice at specialist houses like Forum Auctions and supports buyer confidence. The roughly 50% drop in lot volume from the prior 12 months (54 lots) to the most recent 12 months (27 lots) may reflect normal market cyclicality rather than weakening demand; collectors should monitor upcoming seasons at Bonhams, Christie's, and Sotheby's for renewed supply. Works from Caulfield's signature interior and still-life subjects—pottery, lamps, jugs, and window views—are the most recognizable and tend to perform best at auction.

### Market caveats

- Price distribution is heavily skewed: the median ($915) and 75th percentile ($1,900) are dominated by prints, while the maximum ($524,750) reflects rare oil paintings; quoting a single 'average price' for Caulfield is misleading.
- The dataset mixes USD and GBP results without normalization; currency conversion should be applied before direct price comparison across houses.
- Some recent low-price lots ($25 at Auctions at Showplace) may reflect condition issues, attribution uncertainty, or unreserved estate material and should not be treated as representative of market value for well-catalogued works.
- Attribution should be confirmed through catalogue raisonné or expert review; Caulfield's widely recognized graphic style has been reproduced in posters and exhibition materials that are not original works.
- No buyer's premium is included in the reported prices; actual transaction costs are typically 15–25% above the hammer price at major houses.
- Recent 12-month volume (27 lots) is lower than the prior period (54 lots), which may affect near-term price-stability assessments.

### Market evidence sources

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- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-caulfield-british-1936-2005-cigar-558-c-1c4400586e
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-caulfield-red-jug-and-lamp-screenprint-177-c-21a4c9fb88
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-caulfield-british-1936-2005-garden-with-pines-terracotta-vase-96-c-efb48f5bf5
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-caulfield-british-1935-2005-screenprint-in-colors-on-wove-paper-h-31-w-21-1171-c-95f46d2a9a
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- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-caulfield-british-1935-2005-screenprint-in-colors-on-wove-paper-highlights-stucco-screen-and-stone-wall-h-41-w-30-1166-c-ecb479f912
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-caulfield-british-1935-2005-screenprint-in-colors-on-wove-paper-highlights-stucco-screen-and-stone-wall-h-41-w-30-1165-c-c4e4af790d
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-caulfield-british-1935-2005-screenprint-in-colors-on-wove-paper-highlights-stucco-screen-and-stone-wall-h-41-w-30-1164-c-9cd4a89af1
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-caulfield-british-1935-2005-screenprint-in-colors-on-wove-paper-highlights-stucco-screen-and-stone-wall-h-41-w-30-1163-c-6a44f39a3c
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-caulfield-british-1935-2005-screenprint-in-colors-on-wove-paper-arita-flask-h-31-w-21-1162-c-62a45c0adc
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-caulfield-british-1935-2005-screenprint-in-colors-on-wove-paper-h-31-w-21-1161-c-0f14011932
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-caulfield-british-1935-2005-screenprint-in-colors-on-wove-paper-h-31-w-21-1160-c-43e47a694b
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-caulfield-british-1935-2005-screenprint-in-colors-on-wove-paper-h-31-w-21-1159-c-3bc419abde
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-caulfield-british-1936-2005-garden-with-pines-467-c-7ce47f795e
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-caulfield-british-1936-2005-picnic-set-466-c-f0744b6983
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-caulfield-british-1936-2005-screenprint-in-colors-on-wove-paper-1979-80-h-32-75-w-23-5-ridged-jar-1150-c-fd1483ead2

## Appraisily data basis

This artist page is built from identity and biographical research drawn from museum records, library authority files, and scholarly databases. Appraisily combines this artist-profile research with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available, to support collectors evaluating works by Patrick Caulfield.

## Sources

- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/15989
- VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/19811598/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n82081277
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q492111
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Caulfield
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/1039