# Patrick Nasmyth artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/patrick-nasmyth/
Profile generated: 2026-05-07T02:30:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1787-01-07
- Death date: 1831-08-17
- Nationality: Scottish, British
- Common media: oil painting

## About Patrick Nasmyth

Patrick Nasmyth (1787–1831) was a Scottish landscape painter born in Edinburgh, the eldest son of the prominent painter Alexander Nasmyth. He grew up in one of Scotland's most artistic households — six of his sisters (Jane, Barbara, Margaret, Elizabeth, Anne, and Charlotte) also pursued careers as artists. Nasmyth developed a reputation for naturalistic landscape painting, particularly woodland and rural subjects rendered with close attention to trees, light, and atmosphere. His work reflects the influence of 17th-century Dutch landscape traditions filtered through a distinctly British sensibility. Works by Nasmyth are held in major public collections including Tate. He died in London in 1831 at the age of 44, leaving behind a substantial body of landscape paintings that continue to appear regularly at auction.

## Common works and media

Nasmyth's most commonly encountered works are oil paintings on canvas or panel depicting wooded landscapes, rural cottages, forest interiors, river views, and pastoral scenes. Titles recorded in authority files include Forest Scene, Glenshira, Haweswater, Garland, and Country Public House. His compositions typically feature detailed foreground trees with atmospheric distance, reflecting the influence of Dutch Golden Age landscape painters. Smaller cabinet-size landscapes and en plein air oil sketches also appear in auction contexts.

## Market and appraisal context

Patrick Nasmyth's work trades in a well-established British Old Master landscape market with 280 auction lots recorded by Appraisily, of which 180 carry realized prices spanning 1991 to May 2026. The price distribution shows a wide but informative spread: the median hammered price is approximately £1,000, with an interquartile range of roughly £480–£2,472 and a ceiling near £37,250. Most lots are oil-on-canvas or oil-on-panel woodland, river, and pastoral landscapes sold through UK regional and London auctioneers including Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams, Lyon & Turnbull, Dreweatts 1759, Cheffins, and Tennants. Premium prices are achieved for large, well-attributed works with recognizable topography; the two Alva Estate views sold at Bonhams in May 2025 realized £9,500 and £14,000 respectively. Smaller or attribution-questioned works commonly trade between £200 and £600. Market liquidity has softened recently: only 5 priced lots in the trailing 12 months versus 13 in the prior 12 months, which may reflect general Old Master market headwinds rather than artist-specific weakness.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Patrick Nasmyth's work trades in a well-established British Old Master landscape market with 280 auction lots recorded by Appraisily, of which 180 carry realized prices spanning 1991 to May 2026. The price distribution shows a wide but informative spread: the median hammered price is approximately £1,000, with an interquartile range of roughly £480–£2,472 and a ceiling near £37,250. Most lots are oil-on-canvas or oil-on-panel woodland, river, and pastoral landscapes sold through UK regional and London auctioneers including Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams, Lyon & Turnbull, Dreweatts 1759, Cheffins, and Tennants. Premium prices are achieved for large, well-attributed works with recognizable topography; the two Alva Estate views sold at Bonhams in May 2025 realized £9,500 and £14,000 respectively. Smaller or attribution-questioned works commonly trade between £200 and £600. Market liquidity has softened recently: only 5 priced lots in the trailing 12 months versus 13 in the prior 12 months, which may reflect general Old Master market headwinds rather than artist-specific weakness.

### Appraisal notes

An Appraisily appraisal for a Patrick Nasmyth painting would combine the 280-lot auction record database with close examination of the work's photographs, dimensions, medium (oil on panel versus canvas), signature presence and style, surface condition (crazing, relining, overpaint), and provenance history. The wide price range (£55–£37,250) means comparable-lot selection is critical: appraisers should match on subject type, size, attribution confidence, and sale venue. Signed works with clear provenance through named collections or dealers command a significant premium over attributed or studio works. The posthumous dating issue seen in the auction record (a lot inscribed 1846, 15 years after Nasmyth's death) illustrates why signature verification and date consistency matter for accurate valuation.

### Valuation factors

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### Collector notes

- The Nasmyth market is accessible: median prices near £1,000 make entry-level examples achievable for collectors, while premium works at major houses can exceed £10,000.
- Be cautious of posthumously dated works. Nasmyth died in 1831; any painting dated after that year is either misattributed, by another family member, or bears a false date.
- The alias 'Peter Nasmyth' appears in the auction record (e.g., the 2026 Kraft Auction Service lot). This was a known variant name, but it can also introduce confusion in cataloguing.
- Liquidity has slowed in the past 12 months (5 versus 13 priced lots). Collectors selling should allow extra time and consider major London sale venues for best results.
- Pairs and sets (e.g., the two Alva Estate views at Bonhams) can command premium prices when kept together; splitting them may reduce total realization.
- Woodland and river landscapes with figures or cattle are the most commonly encountered subjects and provide the deepest comparable pool for price benchmarking.

### Market caveats

- The 280-lot dataset includes lots listed under variant names ('Patrick Nasmyth', 'P. Nasmyth', 'Peter Nasmyth'), so the true number of unique works may differ slightly.
- Several recent lots carry 'attr.' attribution or only a verso label; these represent lower confidence in authorship and their prices should not be used as direct comparables for fully signed works.
- One lot in the record is inscribed with the date 1846, which is 15 years after Nasmyth's death — this suggests either misattribution or a later inscription and illustrates the attribution risks in this family of artists.
- Trailing 12-month volume (5 lots) is notably lower than the prior 12-month period (13 lots), which may reduce the reliability of short-term price-trend analysis.
- The Appraisily price distribution (£55–£37,250) reflects mixed attribution quality; the upper end is driven by a small number of well-provenanced, large-format works and is not representative of the typical lot.

### Market evidence sources

- undefined: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/patrick-nasmyth/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-nasmyth-1787-1831-british-english-landscape-a-farm-amidst-trees-with-distant-view-oil-on-1223-c-64c4fbda70
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-nasmyth-british-1787-1831-a-view-of-the-alva-estate-tillicoultry-with-the-ochil-hills-stretching-to-the-distance-115-c-21749f2bc3
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-nasmyth-british-1787-1831-a-view-of-the-alva-estate-tillicoultry-with-two-anglers-on-the-devon-114-c-26746ecae3
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-nasmyth-scottish-1787-1831-22-c-7c04741aec
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-nasmyth-scottish-1787-1831-river-landscape-with-figures-and-cattle-233-c-c954866b5d
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-patrick-nasmyth-1787-1831-open-landscape-with-duck-pond-in-the-foreground-15-5-x-19-5in-1397-c-642bee701f

## Appraisily data basis

This Appraisily artist page draws on identity records from the Getty Union List of Artist Names, VIAF, the Library of Congress Name Authority File, the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), and Tate's collection records. Market context is informed by over 610 auction-lot records in the Appraisily database, supplemented by catalogue references from Thieme/Becker, Bénézit, and Busse as cited in RKD.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7147317
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500005417
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/95713945/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2009186364
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/patrick-nasmyth-397
- RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/58889