Rating and value of works, drawings, paintings by Marcel Bascoulard

If you own a work by or after Marcel Bascoulard, and would like to know its value, our state-approved experts and auctioneers will be happy to offer you their appraisal services.

Our specialists will carry out a free appraisal of your work, and provide you with a precise estimate of its current market value.

Then, if you'd like to sell your work, we'll guide you towards the best possible arrangement to get the best price for it. Isabelle Cazeils, our photography expert, will do her best to answer your questions.

Rating and value of the artist Marcel Bascoulard      

Marcel Bascoulard leaves behind a self-taught and marginal body of work. Prices for his works are now rising under the auctioneer's hammer. His drawings are highly prized, especially by French buyers.

The price at which they sell on the art market ranges from €180 to €5,900, a very wide range, but one that speaks volumes about the value that can be attributed to Bascoulard's works.

In 2018, his Bascoulard travesti photograph sold for €5,900 while it was estimated at between €2,000 and €2,500. His quotation is stable.  

Order of value from a simple work to the most prestigious

Style and technique of artist Marcel Bascoulard

Marcel Bascoulard is a self-taught artist who eludes any defined artistic trend. He produced drawings, paintings and photographs, mainly of self-portraits and landscapes.

His pen-and-ink drawings, with their precise, spontaneous strokes, reveal a raw, almost instinctive mastery. He does not seek to respect academic conventions, preferring a free, sometimes messy gesture, where emotion takes precedence over technique.

His paintings, though rare, play on color contrasts, often dark, reflecting a certain melancholy, perhaps even an echo of the life he leads on the bangs of society.

His photography occupies a special place in his work, notably through his self-portraits in which he cross-dresses. Far from being anecdotal, these stagings raise questions about identity and society's view of the individual.

He blurs the boundaries between masculine and feminine, reality and fiction, and uses his own body as an artistic medium. His shots, often taken in modest settings or outdoors, reflect a sensitivity to the light and atmosphere of the places he inhabits.

His landscape photos, meanwhile, are imbued with solitude, capturing moments of calm that contrast with the tumult of his personal life, even if they are less highly rated than those of less marginal artists such as Christo and Jeanne Claude or Alphonse Mucha.

The life of Marcel Bascoulard

Marcel Bascoulard was born in Bourges in 1913. His childhood was marked by a family tragedy: his mother killed his father, an event that left him deeply traumatized. This dark past undoubtedly influenced his entire life, which was marked by precariousness and marginality.

From an early age, he developed a taste for drawing, an activity that became an escape for him. In the 1930s, his first sketches attracted the attention of Marcel Pinon, who invited him to join the École des Beaux-Arts de Bourges.

But Bascoulard, who had little interest in academic studies, spent a brief period there before resuming his solo career.

He led a bohemian life, sleeping wherever he could, often in shacks or abandoned cars. His poverty doesn't prevent him from continuing to draw and paint, but above all from photographing himself.

Bascoulard stands out for his taste for cross-dressing, a practice he integrates into his daily life and his art. His self-portraits as a woman, taken with a rudimentary camera, express a rejection of social norms.

This eccentric aspect of his personality made him famous in Bourges, where he was both feared and admired. However, his attire earned him a few arrests, as society at the time had little tolerance for such behavior.

Despite this, he continued his work, refusing to conform to expectations. He draws with his pen with a precision that contrasts with the apparent anarchy of his life.

His subjects are often dark, introspective, as if he were seeking to express his malaise through his art. Bascoulard, a solitary figure, became a key figure in Bourges, where he ended his life in isolation.

In 1978, he was murdered by strangulation, an act that put an end to a life already marked by violence and marginality. The town of Bourges, in recognition of his local impact, organized his funeral.

Focus on Self-portrait with pearl necklace, Marcel Bascoulard, 1960

Self-portrait with pearl necklace in studio (1960) by Marcel Bascoulard is both intimate and provocative, evoking the work of other twentieth-century artists who also explored questions of gender and identity.

Like Claude Cahun, Bascoulard blurs the boundaries between masculine and feminine in her self-portraits.

Like Cahun, whose surrealist photographs question established norms, Bascoulard uses her body to reclaim her image and redefine her identity.

The pearl necklace, a delicate and traditionally feminine accessory, here refers to the social construction of gender, while creating a discrepancy between the elegance of the pearls and the precariousness of the artist, reminiscent of Cahun's destabilizing stagings.

The silver print also reveals a technical mastery reminiscent of the portraits of Man Ray, another great twentieth-century photographer, who played with contrasts of light and shadow to sublimate his subjects.

In Bascoulard, the light seems to be sculpted around him, highlighting not only the details of the necklace, but also the serious expression on his face.

The almost clinical technical precision reinforces the psychological intensity of the image, just as in the photographs of Diane Arbus, who also captured marginalized and eccentric characters, revealing a raw, unadorned humanity.

Bascoulard's direct, defiant and melancholy gaze recalls the self-portraits of Frida Kahlo, another artist who often portrayed herself in introspective dialogue.

Like Kahlo, Bascoulard uses her body and clothes as symbols, not to conceal herself but to reveal herself, transforming suffering into a creative force.

The theatrical aspect of this studio portrait is also reminiscent of the work of Cindy Sherman, who a few decades later would also reinvent herself under different identities in her photographic series.

With Bascoulard, however, there's no ironic distancing: his self-portrait with the pearl necklace is a sincere and disturbing assertion of his right to be multiple, outside the norm.

As such, this portrait stands at the crossroads between these major figures of twentieth-century art, while remaining deeply personal and unique.

With this photograph, Bascoulard invites us not only to question our relationship with identity, but also to rethink the limits of the self-portrait as a genre, echoing those who, like him, have pushed back the boundaries of representation.

Marcel Bascoulard's imprint on his era

Marcel Bascoulard, despite his life on the margins, left an important mark. Although his name is not well known outside Bourges, his works are beginning to attract the interest of collectors, particularly at auctions.

The uniqueness of his creations, combining drawing, painting and photography, is attracting more and more art lovers in search of singular works. His artistic production, marked by his personal experience, reflects an extraordinary sensitivity that is difficult to classify.

The photographic self-portraits in which he cross-dresses, long seen as a mere eccentricity, are now being revisited in a new light, particularly through contemporary debates on identity and gender.

By defying the conventions of his time, Bascouard is now seen as a precursor, an artist who questioned norms long before these issues became central to artistic discourse.

His provocative yet introspective shots reveal a human fragility that you'd never guess from his extravagant good looks.

His drawings, often dark, reveal a complex inner world marked by trauma and solitude. The fine, rigorous lines of his work contrast with the chaotic life he led.

Although few in number, his works have become sought-after objects, embodying the authenticity of an artist who has always refused to conform.

His marginality, far from being an obstacle, becomes a strength, a way of exploring new territories in twentieth-century art.

Marcel Bascoulard didn't seek recognition during his lifetime, and yet today he has received it posthumously.

His works, rediscovered over time, have found a place in art history, not for their technicality or their belonging to a movement, but for the freedom they embody.

Bascoulard is the epitome of the cursed artist, misunderstood in his time, but whose work survives and resonates long after his death. His life, like his art, remains a poignant testament to the importance of difference and the refusal to bow to expectations. 

Recognizing the artist's signature

Not all Marcel Bascoulard's works are signed. They may be at the bottom of the painting or drawing, but if you think you own one, it's best to have it appraised to be sure of its originality.

Knowing the value of a work

If you happen to own a painting by Marcel Bascouard or one based on the artist, don't hesitate to ask for a free estimate using the form on our website.

A member of our team of experts and certified auctioneers will contact you promptly to provide you with an estimate of the market value of your work, as well as any relevant information about it.

If you wish to sell your work of art, our specialists will also be on hand to help you sell it at the best possible price, taking into account market trends.