Nicolas De Staël

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Status, estimation and price of the artist Nicolas de Staël

Price of a painting: 42,000 – 8,800,000 €.

Price of a drawing: 2,400 – 106,000 €.

Estimation of a print: 80 – 10,000 €

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

Training and inspirations of Nicolas de Staël

Nicolas de Staël was a French painter of Russian origin. He was born on 23 December 1913 in St Petersburg and died on 16 March 1955 in Antibes. De Staël painted more than a thousand works during his 15-year career. He was inspired by Cézanne, Braque, Matisse, as well as Dutch masters such as Vermeer and Rembrandt. He was naturalised as a French citizen in 1948.

Following the Revolution of 1917, Nicolas de Staël and his family were exiled to Poland where his parents died two years later. He was then entrusted to a Sicilian family, the Friceros, in Brussels. He developed a passion for painting, which he discovered in galleries and museums, and as soon as he finished his studies, de Staël travelled in order to deepen his art culture. He visited the Netherlands and discovered Flemish painting and then entered the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in 1933. He also attended Charles Malcause’s architecture courses at the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint-Gilles and then Georges de Vlamynck’s decoration courses. Nicolas de Staël then travelled in Europe from 1936 onwards, mainly in France where he became familiar with the works of Braque, Soutine and Matisse and in Spain where he made several watercolours. In 1937, Nicolas de Staël met painter Jeannine Guillou in Marrakech, who followed him on his tour of Italy in 1938, taking them from Naples to Pompeii and Capri. The painter cut ties with Belgium and his adoptive family and moved to Paris with Jeannine. He took the opportunity to attend the Fernand Léger academy and painted many canvases which he later destroyed.

Production and exhibitions

The couple moved to Nice where De Staël met da Silva, Sonia and Robert Delaunay as well as Jacques Prévert and Francis Carco. Nicolas de Staël and Jeannine had a daughter in 1942, called Anne. She evoked a new reflection on painting in her father. He abandoned landscapes for portraits, mainly doing portraits of Jeannine. He also began to paint abstract canvases. Their return to Paris in 1943 in the middle of WWII was difficult, and Nicolas de Staël sold his paintings to various buyers and benefactors. In 1944, he took part in an exhibition which brought together his works and those of Kandinsky. Jeannine grew very weak, ill, and died following complications in 1946. A few months later, Nicolas de Staël married Françoise Chapouton, and together they had three children. He subsequently had a multitude of mistresses. The years from 1945 to 1955 were a dark period for de Staël, although he was successful as he exhibited in a multitude of galleries in Paris, Sao Paulo, Toronto. Nicolas de Staël committed suicide by jumping out of a window in Antibes at the age of 41.

The Artcurial auction house in Paris sold the Reclining Nude for 7 million euros to an American collector in December 2011.

Recognising Nicolas de Staël’s signature

Like many artists, De Staël 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 Nicolas de Staël

If you own a piece by Nicolas de Staël 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.