Patrick Caulfield, significant British artist commonly associated with Pop Art.
British artist Patrick Caulfield never reached the stellar fame of some of his contemporaries such as David Hockney, but he did make important and undeniable contributions to 20th century art with his visually striking prints and paintings created in his distinct and unique style using vibrant planes of colour and bold outlines.
Caulfield was a particularly prolific printmaker, and prints currently account for 90% of his work sold at auction. The majority reach between £500 and £1,000, though a significant number fetch up to £5,000, and some sell for even higher prices.
Below is a list of Patrick Caulfield’s six most expensive prints sold at auction. If you own a Patrick Caulfield print and would like to know more about how much it might be worth, or how to sell it, please get in touch with Mark Littler today.
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Les Demoiselles D’Avignon Vues De Derrière
This screenprint from 1999 is based on Picasso’s controversial and daring 1907 painting, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, which depicts five nude prostitutes staring unapologetically back at the viewer. Caulfield’s print reverses the original image so the women are seen from behind, and its title is both a visual pun on this process and a verbal pun on the word ‘derriere’, meaning ‘behind.’
Though Caulfield constantly tried to distance himself from Pop Art – always proclaiming he was a ‘formal painter’ – the appropriation of already-existing imagery to create something new is a common occurrence in the movement. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon Vues de Derrière is now among Caulfield’s most popular prints in today’s market, accounting for 11 out of his 20 most expensive prints sold at auction. This particular edition reached £45,000 in September 2020 when it was sold by Sotheby’s, more than doubling its estimated price.
Les Demoiselles D’Avignon Vues De Derrière sold by Sotheby’s in 2020
Some Poems Of Jules Laforgue
In the late 1960s, Petersburg Press asked Caulfield if he would be interested in creating prints for a limited edition book on a subject of his choice. Caulfield accepted and chose the poetry of Jules Laforgue, a 19th century French Symbolist poet who was one of the pioneers of free verse, and whose work Caulfield first read whilst he was studying at art school.
Of the prints he created for the book, Caulfield said: “The images I produced are complementary images, not illustrations. Some of the connections are a bit tenuous, others are obvious. I tried to imagine what Laforgue might have been looking at when he thought of the poems, knowing of course that certain of the images are totally of another period to Laforgue’s lifetime: poetic licence with poetic licence”.
Caulfield’s series is very popular in today’s market, accounting for five out of 12 of the artist’s most expensive prints sold at auction, with this edition reaching £26,601 when it was sold by Sotheby’s in October 2011.
Some Poems Of Jules Laforgue sold by Sotheby’s in 2011
Still Life
This dramatic 1966 print is a prime example of Caulfield’s daring use of contrasting planes of dense colour, and his interest in still life images and pared-down interiors; it was sold by Sotheby’s in April 2014 for £12,000, far exceeding its £1,200 to £1,500 estimate. As William Feaver once wrote, “Middle-management office equipment and character restaurant décor were inspiration for [Caulfield] and not simply as prompts and props. The paintings absorbed banalities. The painter rendered them worthy, memorable, cherishable even, as emblems of modern life.”
Still Life sold by Sotheby’s in 2014
Café Sign
This print dates from 1968, and its contrasting, saturated colours and hard, bold lines are typical of Caufield’s work. There are elements of Pop Art in this print, yet it may also have been inspired by the postcards the artist saw whilst travelling throughout Europe (and Greece in particular) after graduating from art school. Caulfield said later in his life that the directness and simplicity of the images on the postcards appealed to him, and aspects of them found their way into his art. Café Sign was sold by Bloomsbury Auctions in December 2014 for £8,500.
Cafe Sign sold by Bloomsbury Auctions in 2014
Picnic Set
Although Patrick Caulfield didn’t tend to depict people that much in his art, their presence is everywhere in is work, including in this screenprint from 1978, which was sold by Christies in April 2021 for £8,500. The subject matter illustrates what Caulfield meant by “the shock of the familiar”, showing how he used the mundane and quotidian as inspiration for his artwork, giving just enough detail to create a certain atmosphere and raise questions for the viewer about the scene in front of them.
Picnic Set sold by Christie’s in 2021
Garden With Pines/Signature Pots/Rosé Bottle/Terracotta Vase/Lamp And Pines/Evening Menu
These six prints are a perfect example of Caulfield’s ability to evoke different scenes, emotions and atmospheres using deceptively-simple images. They date from 1975, and most of the prints are dominated by a single colour, with the only real detail coming from the precise black outlines which intricately depict the tangle of branches and vegetation in the background.
Human presence is often just ‘offscreen’ in these prints, imbuing them with a slightly eerie, unsettling feel as the viewer wonders what happened before and after the snapshot of time captured by Caulfield. The prints were sold by Christie’s in December 2013 for £7,500.
Six Caulfield Prints sold by Christie’s in 2013
