Giorgio De Chirico

Do you own a work by Giorgio de Chirico and would you like to know more about its value? Our Experts will carry out a free appraisal of your painting, to provide you with an estimate of the market price, then assist you to sell at the best price.

Status, price and estimation of the artist Giorgio de Chirico

Price of a painting: 7,000 – 7 200,000 €.

Price of a drawing: 800 – 530,000 €.

Estimation of a print: 50 – 12,200 €.

Estimation of a sculpture: 600 – 155,000 €.

If you would like to have a work by Giorgio de Chirico appraised, our experts will take care of everything.

De Chirico, a “metaphysical” artist

The artist Giorgio De Chirico was born in Thessaly, in Volo in 1888. He began to study drawing and painting at the age of eleven, in Athens and then in Munich. He lost his father a few years later in 1906 and found himself having to live with a mother who controlled his comings and goings, even abroad.

When he went to Munich, the artist was not concerned with what was taught at the Fine Arts school, unlike Max Klinger’s paintings or Nietzsche’s philosophy. In Paris, he met Guillaume Apollinaire, whose portrait he painted in 1914 (Portrait prémonitoire de Guillaume Apollinaire). The poet was the first to describe his work, exhibited at the Salon d’Automne and then at the Salon des Indépendants, as “metaphysical”.

He painted his first important works before WWI (The Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon 1910) and then came his “arcades” during his exile. At the same time, he wrote notebooks in which he explained that he sought to transcribe messages of distant and metaphysical inspiration. In Mélancolie et mystère d’une rue (1914), he sought to represent nothing less than the feeling of eternity.
The “Mannequins” came next, as well as the “Plâtres” with mythological figures and motifs. The light in his canvases is primordial, it illuminates at the same time as it disturbs the vision, some shadows being sometimes located opposite the light source.

His work with his brother’s makes it difficult to attribute to this period. Giorgio nevertheless describes his work as metaphysical painting in his manifesto, We Metaphysicians, in 1919.

After that, the period of the mannequins is still in force while he integrates in his paintings the representation of the tools of the painter himself, but also those of the surveyors. (The disturbing muses 1916).
The theme then remains the same while the spaces become enclosed (metaphysical interiors). In addition to metaphysics, Freudian psychoanalysis is an important component of Chirico’s paintings.

A technical career ending for lack of inspiration

After his military period, he created the magazine Valori plastici with Alberto Savinio, Carlo Carrà and then Giorgio Morandi and considered the return of the “technical qualities” necessary. His subconscious collapsed. Paradoxically, it was when he made very reliable copies of Raphael and when the Surrealists became very interested in his earlier work, that Chirico pointed out the technical inadequacy of his early works. He never regained his former success, and ended up making copies of his own works, when they were not simply failed creations.

Recognising Giorgio de Chirico’s signature

Like many artists, Giorgio de Chirico did not sign all of his works. However, you will find below an example of a signature in order to give you a first idea. Variations of this signature exist: do not hesitate to contact one of our experts to authenticate a signature in a formal way.

Appraising and selling a painting by Giorgio de Chirico

If you own a painting or any other sculpture by Giorgio de Chirico, ask for a free estimate via our online form.

You will then be contacted by a member of our team of experts and auctioneers to give you an independent view of the market price of your painting. In the event of a sale, our specialists will also advise you on the various options available to sell your work at the best price.