Mentor & the market Art

Mentor’s works in 2023

 The year 2023 is over. Here’s a look at the artist’s sales.

Tableaus

In 2023, 15 or 17 paintings were sold (out of 17 offered).

Most of the paintings were in small formats (36-38 cm – 44 – 55cm) and were sold for €400 to €700.

 They included 5 landscapes, 3 bouquets of flowers, 2 circuses, 1 small painting dating from 1956 and 6 miscellaneous.

A few medium paintings (50-60 cm –60-73 cm) were sold for more or less €900.

At the end of December 2023, two oils on canvas were sold at €1400 (65 x 80 cm) and €3200 (81 x 100 cm), without fees (which now amount to almost 30%), for a pink nude on the sofa and a painting named “curiosity”.

Drawings

9 drawings, of small size, in grease pencil and in pastel or watercolour on paper were sold.

Prices were modest, from €200 to €400.

No sculptures were sold.

Lithographies

3 small lithos for less than €30 were sold.

Daniel Simonin                January 22, 2024


Mentor’s works in 2022

The year 2022 has been better than the two previous years! The most important is that sixteen paintings were put up for auction and only two were not sold. At the Rennes auction three paintings were sold in July but not paid for by the buyer! they were sold in December but at a lower price (1300, 1650, 2700 €, i.e. about 20% less). The paintings represent a majority of nudes, others a bouquet of flowers, a palace of the doges, two picadors, a paschal lamb and a small painting dated 1957, “riders at the fountain”, sold in Avignon. The size of the paintings is important, the price of small paintings is generally less than 1000 €. The price of auctions must be increased by at least 25%, the commission of the auctioneer. A small bronze was sold, another no, a pastel was sold, two lithographs also, 2 others no. Sales are made in France, only a painting and a small bronze were offered in Italy and Germany, but were not sold. Here is ! we hope that 2023 will be even more favorable for Mentor sales!


Mentor and auctions

The year 2020 is over!

Nine works by Blasco Mentor were offered for auction: six were sold, three were not sold, they were landscapes. The works sold had for two of them, vases, one the Forum of Rome, a still life, and two paintings more characteristic of the work of Mentor: “the big Jump and the Squire” and “Button of rose “. All sales took place in France, except one in Switzerland. Hammerhead selling prices were all under $ 1,000, but these were small sizes, except for the “Rosebud,” which got a fair price of $ 4,500.

We hope that the year 2021 will have some good surprises in store for us and some great sales!

Daniel Simonin Arts Lover

January 11, 2021


Mentor’s works rarely appear in auctions, his place for twenty years has fluctuated between the 4-5,000th and the 25-30,000th depending on the year, taking into account the turnover achieved during sales and in relation to to the number of known artists in auctions.

Mentor is a “French” artist: 94% of Mentor’s works have been auctioned for the past 10 years in France!

Its price has stagnated in recent years and no painting has made a significant sum, the average price of works was between 1,000 and 5,000 € while the record is undoubtedly the painting entitled “The Printing” dating from 1959 which was sold in 1991 for more than 45,000 € without costs! It should be remembered that in the 1990s the Galerie Guigné sold large and beautiful paintings for a price of around € 30,000.

The distribution of sales in recent years is 65% for paintings, 20% for drawings – watercolors and 15% for sculptures and prints.

In 2019 the turnover achieved at auction was € 28,340 for 17 lots sold, only 10% of the lots presented did not find buyers

Among the sales of paintings in 2019 there were 5 bouquets of flowers out of 14 lots, only one of which was not sold. The painting “Impossible Amour” (113 x 165 cm) was sold in Clermont Ferrand for € 7,500 free of charge, which is not expensive, but there was no publicity for this sale. A painting “Cavaliers – La Parade” was sold in Versailles for € 5,000 without costs. We can estimate that sales in the provinces are less followed than “Parisian” sales, consequently their price is lower.

Two sculptures were sold in 2019: a “Sphynge” and a “Ram’s head”, respectively for € 3,000 and € 3,500 without fees. In 2020, due to sanitary circumstances, only 1 sale (out of 2 lots presented) of paintings and no sale of sculptures have taken place to date.

October 15, 2020

Daniel Simonin – Art Lover