Market & prices
Market & prices
1897 — 2026
All 25 documented auction and trade mentions of work by Eugène Rensburg, plus 13 historical exhibition asking prices — faithful to the sources, with source-critical notes.
38 market mentions · 1897–2026
What was paid for work by Rensburg — in his own time and since? This register collects every market mention from the research dossier: auction lots, estimates, asking prices and realised amounts, rendered faithfully and each annotated.
i. how to read
How to read this: three kinds of figures
An estimate is the auction house’s expectation before the sale; an asking price is what a dealer asks; a realised price is what was actually paid. They are not interchangeable and must not be conflated.
Aggregators such as MutualArt and Invaluable bundle lots from many salerooms and may contain re-offerings, composite lots or duplicates. Where a figure sits behind a login or paywall, we say so explicitly.
ii. 1914–1940
Prices in his own time
Exhibition catalogues of De Onafhankelijken (1914–1925) list prices for Rensburg’s work ranging from ƒ5 for a small etching to ƒ450 for a large work; in 1921, Bierkade, voormalige Wagenbrug, Den Haag cost ƒ35 unframed and ƒ70 framed.
In 1940, shortly after the bombing, Gerzon in Rotterdam presented virtually the entire Rotterdam collection; 20% of the proceeds went to the Stichting Opbouw Rotterdam — an early form of auction philanthropy that underlines the civic role of his documentary oeuvre.
iii. register
Register: 38 market mentions
38 of 38 mentions
Auction and trade mentions · 25
| Work | Medium / size | Auction / dealer | Note | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1897 / sold 2003-01-21 | A harbourscene with a city beyond | olieverf op doek, 28,5 × 48 cm | Christie’s Amsterdam | — | behind paywall | Object label suggests a silver medal; unconfirmed |
| 2011-03-14–17 | A Forest Brook | olieverf, 52 × 35 cm | Sotheby’s Amsterdam | $200–300 | $6.462 | Aggregator data not fully consistent |
| 2019-12-15 | Kralingsche Plas (1925) + Groenplaats Antwerpen | — | Veilinghuis Peerdeman | — | €75 | Composite lot |
| date unknown | Zuidblaak Rotterdam | — | Kunstveiling | — | €50 | Indexed snippet only |
| date unknown | Rembrandtsplein Amsterdam | — | Kunstveiling | — | €35 | Indexed snippet only |
| 2026-02-12–14 | Wijnhaven Dordrecht plus twee werken | aquarel, 38,5 × 99,5 cm | Heritage Auctions Europe | opening bid €50 | behind paywall | Two bidders |
| 2025-08-23 | De zeedijk te Oostende | aquarel, 1928, 37 × 58 cm | De Wit | €300–600 | — | No public realised price |
| 2025-03-17 | Nieuwe Haven Rotterdam | pen/inkt/aquarel, 1910, 60 × 100 cm | Medusa | €100–300 | — | No public realised price |
| 2023-05-13 | Antwerpen | — | Campo | €30–100 | — | No public realised price |
| 2023-05-01 | Rotterdamgezicht | aquarel, 1952, 30,5 × 47 cm | Genève | CHF 150–200 | — | No public realised price |
| 2023-02-16 | Werkplaats A.W. Doll, Oudemolstraat 49 Den Haag | 1944 | Vendu | €100–200 | — | No public realised price |
| 2022-10-04 | Haagse Tijpen anno 1898 | aquarel/krijt/inkt, 49,5 × 64 cm | Van Spengen | €150–300 | — | Probably the same motif as HGA z.gr. 2043 |
| 2022-06-22 | Drie Rotterdamse tekeningen | Bagijnenstraat 1915; haven 1910; Aelbrechtskolk 1910 | Zwiggelaar | €70–140 | — | Composite lot |
| 2021-05-12 | Dertien tekeningen | 1909–1936 | Burgersdijk | €160–200 | — | Composite lot |
| 2020-12-11 | Prinsjesdag | aquarel, 62 × 97 cm | Onder de Boompjes | €100–150 | — | No public realised price |
| 2019 | Brussels straatgezicht | ets/droge naald, 53,6 × 24 cm, 28/150 | Bubb Kuyper | €50–70 | — | No public realised price |
| 2018-06-20 | Antwerpse kathedraal plus vijf etsen | aquarel + etsen | Bernaerts | €150–200 | — | Composite lot |
| 2013-01-12 | Dutch Harbor | ets | Clars | $50–100 | — | No public realised price |
| 2012-04-21 | Rotterdamse ets | 18/100, 30,5 × 48 cm | Morton Mexico | $900–1.300 | — | No public realised price |
| 2011-07-21 | Monte Carlo | aquarel, 37,5 × 57 cm | Dominic Winter | £100–150 | — | No public realised price |
| 2011-06-04 | Boslaan met gebouw | olieverf, 1898 | Windibank | £100–150 | — | No public realised price |
| catalogue, date unknown | Wintergezicht | pen, 1918, 35 × 55 cm | Dutch auction | €40–80 | €30 | Catalogue result/starting price |
| catalogue, date unknown | Paarden op de kade | pen, 35 × 50 cm | Dutch auction | €40–80 | €30 | Catalogue result/starting price |
| catalogue, date unknown | Cacao A. Driessen | pen, 37 × 68 cm | Dutch auction | €40–80 | €30 | Catalogue result/starting price |
| catalogue, date unknown | Haven Rotterdam | pen, 38 × 66 cm | Dutch auction | €40–80 | €30 | Catalogue result/starting price |
Purchasing power. A 1914 guilder cannot simply be converted into euros: wages, rents and luxury goods each moved differently. The last column therefore gives a rough indication based on the general price index, purely to make the order of magnitude tangible, rounded to the nearest fifty. It is not a valuation and not proof of a sale: a catalogue asking price did not prove a sale even then. Source: Statistics Netherlands (CBS) StatLine 71905ned, consumer price index 1900=100, reference year 2025; converted at the fixed euro rate of ƒ2.20371.
Historical exhibition asking prices · 13
| Work | Medium | Value today | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1914 | Lente | schilderij | ƒ375 | ± €5.500 |
| 1914 | De Maas te Rotterdam | gekleurde krijttekening | ƒ175 | ± €2.550 |
| 1914 | Oude huizen te Enkhuizen | pentekening | ƒ275 | ± €4.000 |
| 1914 | Markt te Rotterdam | schilderij | ƒ450 | ± €6.550 |
| 1914 | Gouda | pentekening | ƒ250 | ± €3.650 |
| 1919 | Amersfoort | niet gespecificeerd | ƒ375 | ± €3.100 |
| 1920 | Scheepswerf te Vlaardingen | niet gespecificeerd | ƒ350 | ± €2.650 |
| 1921 | Molen de Hoop | ets | ƒ50 oningelijst / ƒ75 ingelijst | ± €400 |
| 1921 | Molen de Hoop | tekening | ƒ350 | ± €2.950 |
| 1921 | Bierkade (voormalige Wagenbrug) | niet gespecificeerd | ƒ35 oningelijst / ƒ70 ingelijst | ± €300 |
| 1922 | Twee ongetitelde etsen | ets | elk ƒ45 oningelijst / ƒ65 ingelijst | ± €450 |
| 1924 | Laroche (Reissouvenir) | ets | ƒ7,50 groot / ƒ5 klein | ± €100 |
| 1925 | Hondenreeks | ets | ƒ7,50 oningelijst / ƒ15 ingelijst | ± €100 |
For comparison: Markt te Rotterdam was listed at ƒ450 in the 1914 catalogue of De Onafhankelijken. A century later four of his pen drawings went for thirty euros each in a Dutch auction catalogue, against an estimate of forty to eighty. Set the two series side by side and what you see is not that the work got worse, but that the attention fell away.
iv. 2011
The 2011 record
The most striking market mention is the sale of A Forest Brook at Sotheby’s Amsterdam (14–17 March 2011): estimated at $200–300, realised $6,462 according to the aggregator MutualArt — more than twenty times the high estimate.
That figure comes from aggregator data that are not fully consistent among themselves; we therefore cite it with reservation, as an indication of what a strong Rensburg oil can achieve on the international market when bidders find each other.
Documentation, not valuation
This register is source-critical documentation, not an appraisal. Amounts are reproduced faithfully as text and have not been converted, indexed or corrected for inflation or currency changes. Some lots are composite lots containing more than one work; some figures are known only through aggregated or paywalled sources.
To find out whether a work is by Rensburg and where it belongs in the oeuvre, see the Appraisal page. More on the provenance of this data: Sources. More on Rensburg’s position: Rediscovery.