# Rolf Knie artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/rolf-knie/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T14:49:53.675Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: Swiss
- Common media: Painting, Drawing, Printmaking, including engraving and lithography, Bronze sculpture, Multiples

## About Rolf Knie

Rolf Knie, born in 1949, is a Swiss painter and multidisciplinary visual artist whose biography also includes acting and circus performance. Library and authority records identify him as a Swiss painter and document publications devoted to his prints, bronzes, and multiples. The collected biographical material connects his visual practice closely with the circus world. Across painting, drawing, engraving, lithography, and sculpture, recurring imagery includes clowns, performers, animals, and theatrical objects. Collectors may therefore encounter both unique works and editioned objects rather than one uniform category. Appraisily's input associates a substantial body of auction records with his name, making precise entity matching and medium classification important. This profile does not assign Knie to a formal art-historical movement because the available authority sources support his identity, media, and circus context more clearly than membership in a specific school. His combined experience in performance and visual art provides the most useful context for understanding why circus subjects recur throughout the work attributed to him.

## Common works and media

Collectors may encounter paintings and drawings, editioned prints such as engravings and lithographs, bronze sculpture, and other multiples. The collected visual-art description repeatedly connects Knie's work with circus themes, including clowns, performers, animals, and theatrical objects. Each work should be catalogued according to its actual medium and, where applicable, its edition or multiple status.

## Market and appraisal context

For appraisal, begin by separating Knie's unique paintings and drawings from prints, lithographs, bronzes, and other multiples. Edition or casting information can change which public records are meaningfully comparable, so objects should first be matched by medium and work type. Circus imagery is documented in the collected material and may help with cataloguing, but subject matter alone does not establish authorship. Appraisily's input associates 339 auction records with this artist; however, the source pack did not expose individual lot descriptions, sale dates, or realized prices. Like-for-like records should therefore be inspected before drawing a valuation conclusion, and no price prediction or market trend is asserted here.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine researched artist identity and authority records with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are publicly available and can be matched reliably.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q120335
- IdRef: https://www.idref.fr/130787108
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/20488258/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolf_Knie
- Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolf_Knie
- Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rolf_Knie,_Clownschuh_gross,_2000_(51265164805).jpg
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/rolf-knie/