# Raffaello Sorbi artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/raffaello-sorbi/
Profile generated: 2026-05-31T06:19:17.767Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1844-02-24
- Death date: 1931-12-19
- Nationality: Italian
- Common media: oil painting

## About Raffaello Sorbi

Raffaello Sorbi (1844–1931) was an Italian painter born and based in Florence, best known for narrative and genre paintings that depict historical, religious, and everyday scenes with careful compositional detail. He trained under the Swiss-Italian painter Antonio Ciseri, a prominent Florentine academic artist, and later taught Umberto Brunelleschi. Sorbi's subject range was broad, encompassing history painting, landscapes, portraits, interior views, animal subjects, and Christian religious scenes. His work reflects the academic traditions of late-19th-century Florence rather than the contemporary avant-garde movements taking hold elsewhere in Europe. With over 180 documented auction appearances, Sorbi's paintings are encountered regularly in the European Old Master and 19th-century painting market.

## Common works and media

Sorbi worked primarily in oil on canvas and panel. Common subjects include multi-figure narrative history scenes, genre interiors, landscapes with animals, religious compositions, and portraits. Works titled in the VIAF record include scenes such as depictions of bacchanals and carriage scenes set in Rome. Collectors may also encounter cabinet-size genre paintings depicting everyday Italian life, as well as larger Salon-scale historical compositions.

## Market and appraisal context

Raffaello Sorbi's paintings appear regularly at auction, primarily in 19th-century European painting and Italian School sales. His narrative history paintings and detailed genre scenes tend to attract the strongest collector interest. When evaluating a Sorbi work for appraisal, key factors include the subject's narrative complexity, the painting's scale and condition, the quality of provenance documentation, and any links to Florentine or Italian gallery histories. Attribution should be confirmed by an expert familiar with Florentine academic painting of the period, as stylistic overlap with contemporaries is possible.

## Appraisily data basis

This Appraisily artist page combines identity research from Getty ULAN, VIAF, RKD, and Wikidata authority files with documented auction-lot volume, auction-house categorization, and provenance context. When available, realized prices, comparable lots, sale dates, and condition reports from public auction records are incorporated to support appraisal guidance.

## Sources

- RKD (Netherlands Institute for Art History): https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/73963
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500017281
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/223778081/
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3929275
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raffaello_Sorbi