Rating and value of paintings by Auguste Mambour

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Artist's rating and value

Thanks to his prolific artistic output, Auguste Mambour is a common sight in auction rooms. A listed Belgian Expressionist artist, his works sell for significant sums on the auction market.

Today, the prices at which his works sell on the auction market range from €20 to €105,000, a considerable delta but one that speaks volumes about the value that can be attributed to Mambour's work.

Sought-after by collectors, works by Auguste Mambour can fetch tens of thousands of euros at auction, as evidenced by his oil on canvas Fragment, dating from 1924, which sold for €105,000 in 2013, whereas it was estimated at between €40,000 and €60,000.

Order of value from the most basic to the most prestigious

Style and technique of artist Auguste Mambour  

The style and technique of Auguste Mambour, a key figure of Belgian Expressionism, are characterized by a rare emotional intensity, embodied in compositions where matter and light engage in a tumultuous dialogue.

Deeply rooted in an exploration of human moods, his works favor a dense, saturated palette, where deep reds, dark blues and vibrant ochres seem to spring directly from the canvas.

Mambour adopts a broad, spontaneous gesture, applying paint in thick, nervous layers that give his paintings an almost sculptural texture.

This raw materiality, sometimes accentuated by scratches and superimpositions, reflects a visceral quest to capture the moment, the fleeting emotion, and the latent tensions that animate his subjects.  

The human figures at the heart of his work often appear distorted and fragmented, as if caught up in an inner movement that defies immobility.

Their exacerbated expressiveness is part of a tradition in which the individual becomes the mirror of universal anguish and impulse, recalling the influence ofEnsor and Permeke. However, Mambour does not limit himself to reproducing the codes of Expressionism.

Through a unique treatment of shadows and reflections, he infuses his compositions with an atmospheric, almost mystical dimension, where the real dissolves into the imaginary.

By defying aesthetic conventions to let matter and emotion speak for themselves, Mambour forges a pictorial language of unparalleled power, where the act of painting becomes a veritable catharsis.

Auguste Mambour's career

Belgian Expressionist painter Auguste Mambour was born in Ghent in 1883, at a time of artistic and social ferment. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in his native city, he soon developed a fascination for the human condition and its contradictions.

Influenced by Symbolism, but eschewing its ethereal subtleties, Mambour soon turned to a more visceral style of painting, driven by the burgeoning Expressionist movement.

His first works, exhibited as early as 1910, already reflect this desire to translate inner turmoil through tormented compositions. 

The years of the First World War marked a decisive turning point in his career. Confronted with the violence and fragility of existence, he found in painting an outlet for his own anguish.

His portraits of soldiers and scenes of desolation bear witness to a lucid and profoundly human outlook, where pain is mixed with palpable spiritual strength.

On his return, Mambour made his mark on the Belgian art scene, taking part in the major collective exhibitions celebrating the avant-garde, while maintaining a certain distance from overly academic circles. 

In the 1920s and 1930s, his work evolved towards partial abstraction, with color and texture taking precedence over figurative contours.

Widely acclaimed for his ability to blend emotional intensity with technical virtuosity, Mambour left a legacy at his death in 1946 that continues to inspire generations of Expressionist artists.

Focus on The Silent Soldier, Auguste Mambour, 1917

Auguste Mambour's Le Soldat Silencieux (The Silent Soldier ), painted in 1917, illustrates with poignant intensity the emotional and psychological complexity that underlies his art. This painting, a medium-format oil on canvas, depicts a seated soldier, his gaze lost in an indefinable distance.

The dark, abstract background evokes a devastated landscape, while the soldier's body, fragmented by angular lines, seems to vacillate between presence and effacement, translating the fragility of the human soul in the face of war.

This painting testifies to Mambour's mastery in transcending simple figuration to explore a spiritual and universal dimension. The palette used, dominated by earthy hues and touches of blood-red, recalls the invisible wounds inflicted by conflict.

Through these colors, the artist manages to suggest a constant tension between life and death, hope and despair. The texture, marked by impasto and scratched areas, adds a raw, almost tactile physicality, reinforcing the impression of an inner struggle.

The soldier's face, barely sketched, is the emotional center of the work. It is not a realistic portrait, but a synthesis of all the expressions of human pain and resilience.

His eyes, empty but charged with meaning, invite the viewer to contemplate not an individual, but a collective condition: that of man shattered by a violence that surpasses him.

Here, Mambour manages to capture what words cannot, using the tools of expressionism to reveal universal truths.

The spatial treatment is equally remarkable. The absence of traditional depth creates a compression that intensifies the emotional weight of the scene. The soldier seems crushed by an oppressive space, reflecting the mental claustrophobia engendered by the horror of war.

This plastic approach, in which the artist manipulates perspective and proportion to serve emotion rather than reality, characterizes Mambour's unique language. 

Finally, Le Soldat Silencieux is in keeping with artistic continuity, while at the same time asserting its individuality.

If echoes of German Expressionism can be discerned, notably in the works ofOtto Dixor by Max Oppenheimer for Austrian Expressionism, Mambour is distinguished by a more subtle, less frontal approach, where suggestion replaces explicit denunciation.

It's not just a question of bearing witness, but of asking: what happens to humanity in circumstances where it seems to be fading away?

So this work by Auguste Mambour is much more than a representation of a soldier. It is a reflection on the human experience of the inexpressible.

She confronts us with our own limits, our own silences, and reminds us with rare force that art can be a space for dialogue between the individual and the universal, between intimate pain and collective memory.

Auguste Mambour's influence on European Expressionism

Auguste Mambour's mark on European Expressionism is manifest in a unique synthesis where the emotional force of form meets a singular spiritual depth.

Far from the sometimes garish exaggerations of his contemporaries, Mambour has developed a language in which visual intensity is combined with a silent meditation on the human soul.

His works, often marked by solitary figures and tense atmospheres, transcend simple figuration to reach a universal scope.

While there are echoes of German Expressionism in his work, notably in the emphasis placed on suffering and anguish, Mambour differs in a more introspective, almost mystical approach, where the fragmentation of forms becomes a metaphor for the human condition.

His compositions, oscillating between figuration and abstraction, seem to contain within them a tectonic force, a latent energy ready to emerge, revealing the underlying tensions of his time.

In an artistic movement often driven by tumult and excess, Mambour has left a mark that is both discreet and indelible: that of an artist for whom the cry must never overwhelm the murmur.

Through this expressive subtlety, he enriched the language of Expressionism by integrating a more intimate, meditative dimension, which continues to inspire and question the history of modern art.

His signature

Not all Auguste Mambour's works are signed.

Although there are variations, here's a first example of his signature:

Appraising your property

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