Modern prices Historical prices

In an age when the most expensive picture sold at auction is a pastel (Munch's The Scream, sold at Sotheby's, New York, 2.V.2012 for $119.9m) it may seem surprising that pastels generally fetch far lower prices than equivalent paintings in oil. On this page we review recent prices before turning to historical data.

Modern prices

The table below sets out a list of pastels (by artists within the scope of the Dictionary, i.e. those working before 1800) for which published sale prices in excess of $100,000 are recorded in recent times. It ignores those sold by private treaty (except where published pre-emption prices are known). Recent trends reflect growing interest among American museums in particular in outstanding examples in this field. Of 88 works, Liotard accounts for 16; La Tour (16); Carriera (7); Tiepolo (6); Hamilton (5); Vigée Le Brun (6); Barocci (2); Boucher (2); Chardin (2), Copley (2); Coypel (2); Fragonard (2); Gardner (2); Greuze (2); Perronneau (2); Wright (2); with one each from Gainsborough, Girodet, Hoare, Lely, Lemoyne, Mengs, Nanteuil, Nattier, Pillement (a pair, counted as one), Russell, Sharples, Vigée and Weyler. (A couple of these are drawings with pastel, and one is early nineteenth century.)

Liotard now heads the table by value, but no longer for the single highest price paid at auction for a pre-1800 pastel: $2,434,500 was paid for a small Gainsborough pastel in 2013. La Tour is a close second by value, with one more entry; his rival Perronneau achieved similar prices during the early part of the twentieth century, but his popularity has again waned, so that only a single record appears. Among other French artists, Greuze is represented by the study for L'Heureuse mère by Greuze (now in Washington) which fetched Fr2.85 million in 1999; it sold for Fr35,000 in the Doucet sale of 1912, equivalent to Fr600,000 in 1999 purchasing power. The other schools have commanded prices which, for sufficiently important examples, have been no lower. When Arthur Veil-Picard bought John Russell's Mrs Currie at the turn of the century, he paid Fr80,000 (admittedly this was Fr20,000 more than he intended, owing to a confusion with his agent); this was twice as much as he paid for his La Tour Watelet. Russell's John Withers (now in the Courtauld Institute) was preempted at £102,500, while two versions of Carriera's Lord Boyne were sold, one in 2002 for $621,750; the other ultimately being acquired for £525,000. The interesting Canova in his studio (V&A) by Hugh Douglas Hamilton fetched a remarkable £525,000 in 1998. American pastels, even by minor artists, are much sought after, and Copley is represented by several examples. But the consistent performer in monetary terms has been Liotard, with numerous examples achieving six-figure sums. Most spectacularly, the portrait of Lord John Mount Stuart (later Lord Bute) went to the Getty for £1 million in 2000.

Prices in the table are shown inclusive of buyer's premium where known. For full details, consult the main entry in the Dictionary.

BAROCCI
Madonna and Child beside a crib in an interior (London, Christie's, 6.VII.2010, Lot 38, £505,250)
Young lady looking down (New York, Sotheby's, 28.I.2015, Lot 48, $221,000

BOUCHER
Sireul (New York, Sotheby's, Lot 139, $274,000)
Vénus jouant avec deux colombes (Paris, Christie's, 23.VI.2010, Lot 109, €601,000)

CARRIERA
BOYNE (New York, MMA. New York, Sotheby's, 24.I.2002, Lot 54, $621,750)
BOYNE (Birmingham, Barber Institute. London, Christie's, 8.VII.2008, Lot 53, £421,250; Daniel Katz; acqu. £525,000)
Elisabetta Algarotti DANDOLO (London, Sotheby's, 21.III.2007, Lot 70, £66,000)
Sir James GRAY (private sale, subject to export licence deferral, 2009, $950,000)
Lord Sidney BEAUCLERK (London, Christie's, 3.VII.2012, Lot 76, £229,250)
Dame en Été (New York, Sotheby's, 21.V.1998, Lot 82, $118,000)
Ragazza con pappagallo (Chicago, Art Institute. London, Christie's, 13.XII.1984, Lot 181, £135,000)

CHARDIN
AUTOPORTRAIT (Orléans, mBA. Clermont-Ferrand, Aguttes, Ryaux, 24.IV.1986, Fr6,000,000)
AUTOPORTRAIT (Chicago, Art Institute. Paris, Drouot, Audap, Godeau, Solanet, 8.XII.1983, Fr1,250,000)

COPLEY
Mrs Joseph BARRELL (South Deerfield, Douglas, 25.V.2001, Lot 1, $115,000)
Joseph GREENE; & pendant: spouse (Manchester, New Hampshire, Northeast Auctions, 22-24.II.2008, Lot 1747, $326,000)

COYPEL
La Folie pare la Décrépitude (Paris, Sotheby's, 24.VI.2009, Lot 57, €336,750)
Dame en robe rose faisant de la tapisserie (Paris, Sotheby's, 23.VI.2011, Lot 55, €276,750)

FRAGONARD
La Fête à Rambouillet, chlk, pstl (London, Christie's, 3.VII.2007, Lot 137, attr., £1,252,000)
Enfant en Amour (London, Christie's, 5.VII.2011, Lot 80, £85,250

GAINSBOROUGH
Duchess of MARLBOROUGH (private sale, subject to export licence deferral, 1994, £236,919; resold, New York, Christie's, 31.I.2013, Lot 79, $2,434,500)

GARDNER
Sturt family (London, Christie's, 2.VII.2013, Lot 65, £133,875)
Lady Grey (London, Sotheby's, 8.vii.2015, Lot 228, £233,000)

GIRODET-TRIOSON
Étude de dragon, crayon noir, estompe, pastel (Paris, Espace de Bourbon, Gestas-Carrère, 25.IX.2010, €415,138)

GREUZE
Self-portrait (New York, Sotheby's, 31.I.2013, Lot 80, $350,500)
Mme GREUZE, étude pour L'Heureuse Mère (Washington, NGA. Paris, Drouot, Néret-Minet, 15.XI.1999, Lot 59, Fr2,850,000)

HAMILTON
Earl-Bishop of BRISTOL (acqu. 1993, £125,000)
CANOVA in his studio (London, V&A. Acqu. 1998, £525,400)
CANOVA, small head (London, Sotheby's, 4.XII.2008, Lot 112, £199,250)
Marquess of DOWNSHIRE (London, Christie's, 30.XI.2000, Lot 2, £377,750; London, Christie's, 14.VII.2011, Lot 75 repr., £337,250; London, Christie's, 5.VII.2017, Lot 87, £269,000)
Sir James GRAHAM (London, Christie's, 19.V.2000, Lot 106, £155,000)

HOARE
Henry HOARE (London, Sotheby's, 4.VII.2012, Lot 163, £361,250)

LA TOUR
AUTOPORTRAIT (Louvre. London, Christie's, 5.VII.2005, Lot 162, £657,600)
AUTOPORTRAIT (Paris, Drouot, Libert, 5.XII.2008, Lot 9, attr., €110,000)
AUTOPORTRAIT (Paris, Sotheby's, 25.VI.2003, Lot 29, €145,375)
BELLE-ISLE (Monaco, Sotheby's, 18-19.VI.1992, Lot 60, Fr2,220,000; Mrs Phoebe Cowles, San Francisco; New York, Christie's, 23.I.2004, Lot 63, $388,300)
La maréchale de BELLE-ISLE (Paris, Drouot Richelieu, Binoche, 26.VI.1996, Lot 24, Fr500,000)
Mme CAILLOUX (New York, Christie's, 30.I.1998, Lot 250, $110,300)
Mlle CLAIRON (New York, Christie's, 14.IV.2016, Lot 144 repr., $161,000)
DUVAL DE L'ÉPINOY (Jacques Doucet; Paris, Georges Petit, 5-8.VI.1912, Lot 75, Fr600,000)
DUMONT le Romain jouant de la guitare (Monaco, Ader, Picard, Tajan, Escaut-Marquet, 11.XI.1984, Lot 4, Fr4,000,000. New York, Sotheby's, 29.I.2009, Lot 66, $1,258,500)
Marie FEL au clavecin (London, Christie's, 10.XII.1993, Lot 52, £140,000)
MIRLEAU de Neuville (Paris, Drouot, Kalck, 26.IV.2017, Lot 152, €112,680)
La princesse de ROHAN (Paris, Christie's, 26.III.2014, Lot 82, €217,500)
ROUSSEAU (Montmorency, musée Jean-Jacques Rousseau. London, Sotheby's, 4.VII.2007, Lot 86, £144,000)
VOLTAIRE (Saint-Quentin, musée Antoine Lécuyer. Paris, Drouot, Rieunier, Bailly-Pommery, 18.X.1995, Fr1,400,000)

LELY
Young girl with pearl necklace, chlk, pstl (Nantes, Couton Veyrac Jamault, 13.VI.2017, Lot 30, €520,800)

LEMOYNE
LOUIS XV (Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum. New York, Christie's, 12.I.1995, Lot 87, $211,500)

LIOTARD
BUISSON-BOISSIER (Houston, MFA. Acqu. 1986, SwFr2,000,000)
Viscount Mountstuart, Marquess of BUTE (Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum. Acqu. 2000, £1,308,710)
Lady FAWKENER (Compton Verney. London, Sotheby's, 10.VII.2002, Lot 214, £732,650)
Mrs FREMEAUX (Geneva, mAH. London, Sotheby's, 17.X.1997, Lot 283, £98,000)
Mlle JACQUET (Paris, Sotheby's, 21.VI.2012, Lot 57, €1,464,750)
KAUNITZ (New York, Christie's, 29.I.2009, Lot 61, $110,500)
Miss Susanna LEWIS (London, Christie's, 4.VII.1995, Lot 149, £331,500)
Lady Anne Somerset, later Countess of NORTHAMPTON (New York, Christie's, 25.I.2012, Lot 134, $293,500)
J. M. van TUYLL VAN SEROOSKERKEN; & pendant: spouse (Stichting Slot Zuylen. London, Christie's, 10.VII.2001, Lot 124, £113,750)
Lady TYRELL (Geneva, mAH. London, Christie's, 2.VII.1991, Lot 380, £448,897)
Dame en costume maltaise (Washington, NGA. London, Sotheby's, 10.VII.2002, Lot 211, £776,650)
Dame en turque et sa servante au bain (London, Christie's, 4.VII.1995, Lot 148, £903,500)
Dame en turque et sa servante au bain (London, Christie's, 7.VII.2009, Lot 57, £657,250)
Lady in a pink dress (London, Christie's, 5.VII.2011, Lot 77 repr., £337,250)
Nature morte: jeu de loto (Geneva, mAH. New York, Sotheby's, 22.V.1997, Lot 86, $992,500)
Nature morte (London, Sotheby's, 5.VII.2017, Lot 81, £416,750)

MENGS
Allégorie de la Vérité (Houston, MFA. London, Christie's, 6.VII.1993, Lot 189, £109,300)

NANTEUIL
POMPONNE (New York, Christie's, 30.I.1998, Lot 216, $105,000)

NATTIER
Mme ROYER (New York, Sotheby's, 22.V.1992, Lot 43, $270,000)

PERRONNEAU
DESFRICHES (Orléans, mBA. Paris, Drouot, 8.vi.2016, Lot 68, €412,500)
Olivier JOURNU (New York, MMA. Paris, Sotheby's, 27.VI.2002, Lot 39, €258,750)

PILLEMENT
Two river scenes (London, Christie's, 29.IV.2015, Lot 70, £92,500)

RUSSELL
WITHERS (London, Courtauld Institute. London, Sotheby's, 22.III.2000, Lot 91, £102,337)

SHARPLES
George WASHINGTON (Manchester, New Hampshire, Northeast Auctions, 22-24.II.2008, Lot 1744, $141,200)

TIEPOLO
Testa di vecchio (London, Sotheby's, 8.VII.2009, Lot 69, £289,250)
Mujer con mantilla y otras figuras (London, Christie's, 5.VII.1996, Lot 54, £184,000)
Mujer con nabos y otras figuras (London, Christie's, 5.VII.1996, Lot 53, £260,000)
Naranjera y majos (London, Christie's, 5.VII.1996, Lot 55, £320,000)
Los madrileños (New York, Christie's, 11.I.1995, Lot 52, $717,500)
Gentleman holding a cane, another with a Phrygian bonnet, a woman, (London, Christie's, 5.VII.1996, Lot 52, £170,000)

VIGÉE
Mme ?FAVART en pèlerine (Stockholm, Nationalmuseum. Paris, Sotheby's, 21.VI.2012, Lot 53, €84,750)

VIGÉE LE BRUN
Autoportrait (New York, Sotheby's, Lot 136, $187,500)
Les enfants CAILLOT (Paris, Tajan, 20.XII.2000, Lot 54, Fr2,500,000)
Mrs Spencer PERCEVAL (Paris, Sotheby's, 25.III.2014, Lot 109, €133,500)
M. & Mme de ROISSY (Paris, Sotheby's, 22.VI.2010, Lot 46, €216,750)
Countess of TANKERVILLE (New York, Bonhams, 21.IV.2009, Lot 89, $122,000)
Jeune femme (Paris, Christie's, 10.IV.2013, Lot 78, €115,000)

WEYLER
La Fayette (Paris, Christie's, 23.VI.2010, Lot 157 repr., €157,000)

WRIGHT OF DERBY
Young woman (New York, MMA. London, Christie's, 5.VI.2006, Lot 52, £187,200)
Young boy reading (London, Sotheby's, 14.VII.2010, Lot 52, £313,250

Historical prices

It almost meaningless to compare prices during the eighteenth century with those paid during the nineteenth or twentieth centuries, not least because currency exchange rates and inflation introduce such powerful distortions into the statistics. Even for long periods in the eighteenth century, when rates were relatively stable, there were large cost of living differences between London and the Continent. But for illustrative purposes, one can take prices paid in local currencies, exchange them into sterling at the contemporary rate, and adjust them for inflation using a retail prices index (note that this does not produce the same number as inflating in the local currency before exchange). Adjusting for inflation in luxury goods or in the cost of building a stately home would of course produce far higher numbers. Prices of paintings of similar pre-eminence to pastels seem to have moved significantly faster.

The UK retail price inflation rate from mid-eighteenth century to 2015 is about 200; between 1796 and 1914, the factor is closer to 100. Before 1914, £1 was roughly equal to FFr25 or $4.50. More accurate numbers are used in the illustrations below.

During the eighteenth century the highest price recorded was probably the 48,000 livres demanded, but not received, by La Tour for his portrait of Mme de Pompadour. Adjusting this using these principles to 2015£ values equates to only £362,000. Apart from Mme de Pompadour, very few eighteenth century records indicate prices exceeding say 1200 livres (2015£: £10,000), a level reported for a number of other artists from Rosalba and Mengs to Boze. But these are still significantly short of the 100 louis d'or (2015£: £19,000) Nanteuil received for his pastel of Louis XIV in the mid-seventeenth century.

Prices for pastels collapsed at the end of the eighteenth century and only really revived with the second wave of interest towards the end of the nineteenth century. In 1896, the 1000 guineas (2015£: £123,000) achieved by Lawrence's Mrs Boucherett at the Angerstein sale (Christie's, 1896) was believed to be the highest price ever paid at auction for a pastel. Prices relative to other pictures reached a zenith in the first quarter of the twentieth century, when works by La Tour fetched prices comparable with canvases of Fragonard or Watteau, and in excess of fine paintings by Rembrandt or Chardin. Perhaps the highest price was the £48,000 (Fr1.2 million at the time, 2015£: £2.4 million) agreed by Nathan Wildenstein with the Greek shipowner Nicolas Ambatielos for La Tour's président de Rieux in 1919 (Clemenceau saw it earlier that year, and said "c'est le plus beau pastel que j'aie vu…il devrait rester en France"); however, Ambatielos became bankrupt before payment was made, and the picture returned to Wildenstein where it remained until Maurice de Rothschild bought it for an undisclosed sum in 1930. It was sold to the Getty in 1994, also for an undisclosed sum. For comparison, the appendix in Gimpel 1963 includes paintings such as Fragonard's Le Billet doux (Fr420,000 at the Cronier sale in 1905; 2015£: £1.8 million), $250,000 in 1919 (2015£: £2.8 million); Watteau's Deux cousines (Fr220,000 in 1918; 2015£: £538,000); and Rembrandt's Titus ($40,000 in 1919; 2015£: £446,000). (In the field of old master drawings, many sheets by Michelangelo, each of which would now be priced in millions, sold for a few hundred pounds in the late nineteenth century.) One notes also that other La Tour pastels achieved high relative prices at the same time: La Tour's Mme Rouillé was sold for Fr31,000 (2015£: £148,000) in 1897 but reached Fr365,000 (2015£: £665,000) in the Bardac sale in 1920 and Fr1 million (2015£: £2.1 million) in 1926. The splendid La Tour Duval de l'Épinoy sold for Fr600,000 (2015£: £2.5 million) in the Doucet sale in 1912, double the estimate, and reported at the time as the highest price ever paid for a pastel (in our metric, that claim remains valid today). Writing in the Burlington magazine, Robert Dell, its first editor, revealed typically British fury: "Is it in accordance with common sense that a masterpiece by Fragonard [le songe du mendiant] should fetch 137,500 francs, and a masterpiece by Latour, who can hardly be counted the equal of Fragonard, 660,000? The truth is that prices have no sort of relation to artistic value."