Jean Dubuffet

Do you have a piece by Jean Dubuffet in your possession and would like to know its value? Our Experts will carry out a free appraisal of your piece, provide you with an estimate of the market price, and then help you to sell at the best possible price.

Status, estimate and price of the artist Jean Dubuffet

Price of a painting: 39,000 – 3,000,000 €.

Price of a drawing: 17,000 – 1,000,000 €.

Price of a print: 70 – 5,500 €.

Price of a sculpture: 152,000 – 800,000 €.

If you would like to have a Dubuffet work appraised, our experts will take care of everything.

Jean Dubuffet – A self-taught artist

Jean Dubuffet was born in 1901 in Le Havre and died in 1985 in Paris. He was the child of two wine merchants. Once he obtained his high school certificate, he left for Paris to exclusively produce paintings. He found it difficult to follow this path, as he never ceased to challenge classical artistic references. After his training at the Julian Academy, he suddenly decided to stop painting for eight years, as he dedicated himself to taking over his parents’ wine business. At the age of 40, he completely reinvested himself in art and brought about what is known as Art Brut in 1945. While visiting psychiatric institutions, he discovered another form of art made by children, sick people and marginalized people, which emancipated itself from the bourgeois arts he had been taught.

Having made such a significant discovery, he went on to create countless series (the Butterfly Wing paintings, the Cows series, the Topographies etc.). In 1960, he created the Hourloupe cycle, a word that mixes the French words “loup” (wolf) and “entourloupe” (trick) and which describes an artform that is inspired solely by white, blue and black, in the creation of paintings, sculptures and other astonishing assemblages. Nowadays, Dubuffet is very valuable on the art market as he is considered to be the theoretician of “Art brut”.

Success in his lifetime

Dubuffet is ranked as the 26th most highly rated artist at auction. In 1961, he held a surrealist sale of the work Paris Polka (190x220cm), which was exhibited in New York in May 2015. The estimate for the Jean Dubuffet painting was announced at $25 million, knowing that Dubuffet had never sold a painting worth more than ten million. The work was part of the “Looking forward the past” sale, it is one of the finest auctions in history with an overall price of $705.9 million. In this successful sale, the Dubuffet painting was sold at a record price of $24.8 million. The artist jumped 34 places in the annual rankings thanks to Paris Polka.

The Dubuffet coast nowadays

Jean Dubuffet’s works grew in value by +161% between 2000 and 2016, with his works selling more in the United States than in France.

In 2016, the Jean Dubuffet painting estimate is over 3 million euros with three works sold. His paintings are estimated at 1 million euros, his sculptures reach 800,000 euros while his prints (45% of the market) can be sold at a more affordable price of around 5,000 euros.

Recognising Jean Dubuffet’s signature

Like many artists, Dubuffet did not sign all of his works. However, you will find below an example of the signatures to give you an idea. Variations of these signatures do exist, do not hesitate to contact one of our experts to formally authenticate a signature.

Appraising and selling a piece by Jean Dubuffet

If you own a piece by Jean Dubuffet or any other object, 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 piece. In the context of a possible sale, our specialists will also advise you on the different options available to sell your work at the best price.