# Robert Ballagh artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/robert-ballagh/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T14:50:00Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1943-09-22
- Nationality: Irish
- Movements: Pop art (early influence)
- Common media: Painting, Graphic design, Postage-stamp design, Banknote design, Theatrical set design

## Portrait

![Robert Ballagh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Robert_Ballagh_2014.jpg/1280px-Robert_Ballagh_2014.jpg)
Sinn Féin · CC BY 2.0
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Ballagh_2014.jpg

## About Robert Ballagh

Robert Ballagh is an Irish artist, painter and designer born in Dublin in 1943. His early painting is described as strongly influenced by Pop art, while later work includes highly detailed portrayals of Irish literary, historical and public figures. His practice extends beyond easel painting: he designed more than 70 Irish postage stamps, worked on a series of banknotes, and created theatrical settings for productions connected with Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde and Riverdance. Ballagh began exhibiting in solo and group contexts in the late 1960s and represented Ireland at the 1969 Biennale de Paris. These overlapping roles—as painter, portraitist and public-facing designer—help explain why collectors may encounter his name across fine-art, graphic-design and theatre-related material. Authority records at Wikidata and Getty ULAN distinguish him as the Irish artist born in 1943, while the collected Appraisily page indicates a substantial auction-record presence.

## Common works and media

Documented work types include paintings, especially detailed figure and portrait subjects, alongside graphic design for Irish postage stamps and banknotes. Ballagh also designed theatrical sets. Auction listings should therefore be classified carefully: a painting, an original design, a commission-related item and a later reproduction are not interchangeable. The source pack does not provide enough lot-level detail to determine how frequently each category appears at auction or to define typical editions.

## Market and appraisal context

For appraisal, first determine whether the object is a unique painting, a design-related work or material connected to a documented commission. Subject identification can matter because Ballagh is known for portrayals of Irish literary, historical and public figures. A date or documented link to his stamp, banknote or theatre work can provide useful context, but it does not by itself establish attribution or value. Object-specific evidence—medium, dimensions, signature or marks, condition and provenance—must be assessed from the work itself. Where public sale records are available, compare like with like by work type, date, subject, size, sale date and realized result. The supplied pack identifies an Appraisily auction-price page but does not expose individual lots, prices or condition reports, so no price trend is asserted here.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist-identity research with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices and comparable lots when those records are available. This profile separates documented identity and practice from conclusions that require inspection of a specific object.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7341837
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500018901
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ballagh
- Wikipedia: https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ballagh
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/robert-ballagh/
- Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Ballagh_2014.jpg