# Richard Mortensen artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/richard-mortensen/
Profile generated: 2026-05-11T18:29:17.930Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1910-10-23
- Death date: 1993-01-06
- Nationality: Danish
- Common media: painting, lithography, design

## About Richard Mortensen

Richard Mortensen (1910–1993) was a Danish painter, lithographer, designer, and scenographer recognized as a significant figure in twentieth-century Danish art. Born in Copenhagen, he worked across painting and printmaking for much of his career. His work is represented in major international museum collections, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, which holds examples in its permanent collection. Mortensen also produced stage and set designs, reflecting a practice that extended beyond the canvas into theatrical and applied arts. He is recorded in leading authority files including the Getty Union List of Artist Names, VIAF, and the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), confirming his established position in the historiographic record of modern European painting.

## Common works and media

Mortensen's auction and museum record includes oil paintings on canvas and panel, color lithographs and other prints, and design or scenography-related works. Collectors may also encounter works on paper, including gouaches and ink drawings. The RKD identifies him as a lithographer, designer, and painter, indicating that printed multiples may form a meaningful portion of the secondary market. Authentication should reference his distinctive abstract geometric vocabulary and be confirmed against catalogue or authority records.

## Market and appraisal context

Richard Mortensen's work appears regularly at auction, with over four hundred recorded lots in the Appraisily database. Collectors encountering Mortensen pieces should consider the specific medium, since he produced oil paintings, lithographs, and design works that may carry different market profiles. Provenance, exhibition history, date of execution, and condition are standard factors in assessing value. His institutional representation at MoMA and inclusion in Getty ULAN and VIAF authority records support long-term collectibility. Auction results for comparable lots by Danish twentieth-century painters can provide useful benchmarks, but individual appraisal requires lot-specific analysis.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine published artist identity research from museum, library-authority, and encyclopedia sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Richard Mortensen, identity data is grounded in the Getty ULAN, VIAF, RKD, and MoMA collection records. Market observations draw from the Appraisily auction database and published institutional sources.

## Sources

- RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/57893
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/20487306/
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q392816
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500022360
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/4113
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mortensen
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n85083665