# Sebastian Pether artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/sebastian-pether/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T20:12:43.019Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: English
- Common media: Painting, Landscape painting

## About Sebastian Pether

Sebastian Pether (1790–1844) was an English landscape painter known especially for scenes organized around unusual sources of light. Moonlight, sunset, and firelight recur in accounts of his work, while authority records identify subjects such as boats on a river by moonlight and a blacksmith’s forge. He belonged to a family of painters: his father, Abraham Pether, and his brother, Henry Pether, also became closely associated with moonlit landscapes, leading the three to be described collectively as the “Moonlight Pethers.” Sebastian’s paintings have also been distinguished in secondary biographical material by a tendency toward greenish tonal effects. Collectors may encounter his name on nocturnal landscapes, river views, forge subjects, and other low-light compositions offered through the auction market. Because several members of the family worked with related imagery, a credible identification requires more than a moonlit subject or a Pether signature alone.

## Common works and media

Works associated with Sebastian Pether are principally landscape paintings, especially nocturnal or low-light compositions. Documented subjects include moonlit river scenes with boats, sunset landscapes, firelit views, and a blacksmith’s forge by moonlight. The collected evidence does not establish a characteristic print edition, sculptural practice, ceramic output, or other edition-based body of work.

## Market and appraisal context

The strongest appraisal context in the collected evidence is the relationship between artist identity and subject type. Moonlit rivers, boats, sunsets, and firelit forge scenes correspond to documented themes, but similar subjects were also painted by Sebastian Pether’s father and brother. Attribution to the correct Pether therefore deserves particular scrutiny. When suitable records are available, comparison should focus on publicly documented lots assigned to Sebastian Pether and should consider the sale date, cataloguing, images, realized price, and similarity of subject. The current source pack does not provide enough lot-level evidence to establish a price trend or predict a value.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine public artist-identity research with auction records and auction-house context. When available, sale dates, realized prices, images, cataloguing, and comparable lots are used to place an individual work in context without guaranteeing attribution or value.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16858198
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500013472
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/95763371/
- RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/62964
- Art UK: https://artuk.org/discover/artists/pether-sebastian-17901844
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Pether
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/sebastian-pether/