# Winold Reiss artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/winold-reiss/
Profile generated: 2026-05-30T13:20:07.865Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1886-09-16
- Death date: 1953-08-29
- Nationality: German, American
- Movements: American Modernism, Art Deco (applied/interior design)
- Common media: oil painting, illustration, graphic design, lithographic reproduction, interior and industrial design drawing

## About Winold Reiss

Winold Reiss (1886–1953) was a German-born American painter, illustrator, and graphic designer recognized for his vivid portraits of Native American subjects and his contributions to early twentieth-century commercial design. Born in Karlsruhe, Germany, Reiss trained in Europe before immigrating to the United States in 1913. Beginning in 1920, he spent extended periods on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, producing more than 250 portraits that remain among the most widely circulated images of Native American life from that era. The Great Northern Railway commissioned many of these works, distributing lithographic reproductions on calendars for decades. Reiss also maintained an active design practice in New York, producing interiors, furnishings, and exhibition concepts for restaurants, showrooms, and the 1939 New York World's Fair. He taught Aaron Douglas, a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, among other students.

## Common works and media

Reiss's output spans original oil portraits of Native American sitters (especially Blackfeet leaders and families), pastel and graphite figure studies, commercial lithographic prints distributed via railway calendars, and detailed interior design drawings for restaurants, showrooms, theaters, and exhibition installations. His graphic design work includes posters, decorative screens, and furniture concepts. Collectors may also encounter period magazine illustrations and collaborative exhibition designs from his New York practice.

## Market and appraisal context

Winold Reiss's work appears at auction across several categories: original oil paintings, works on paper, lithographic prints, and design drawings. His Native American portraits are the best-known segment, but collectors should distinguish between original paintings and the widely distributed Great Northern Railway calendar lithographs, which were produced in large numbers and carry different value. Interior and industrial design drawings, many held institutionally at the Library of Congress, form a distinct collectible category. Provenance, confirmation of medium, condition, and subject matter all play roles in appraisal. Attribution should be verified when possible, as reproductions of his popular Blackfeet portraits circulate in the secondary market.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine researched artist identity with available auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots. For Winold Reiss, identity data is drawn from the Getty ULAN authority file, the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, Wikidata, VIAF, and the Library of Congress name authority, supplemented by biographical context from public encyclopedia sources.

## Sources

- RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/96840
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500012600
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2584780
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/29145857777623020561/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n84220131
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winold_Reiss