Emilie "Rainbow" Touraine Art Provenance
Experts compiled detailed art provenances for over 200 pieces created by Emilie Touraine during her lifetime. Each piece has associated origin, chain of custody, and transactional history. This information was collected through ledgers, records from her art dealer, personal sales, and public auction results from 1959 to present day.
Please contact us to enquire about specifics or share additional information.
Valuation
Like most artists, Touraine’s subject choices, various media, and size of each piece have resulted in huge fluctuations in the valuation of her work.
Circling Touraine's death in 2019, there was a temporary market increase for her paintings, when collectors assumed scarcity would increase value. It was during this time, that her first and only few paintings sold for over $1000. However large releases of inventory coupled with low demand have suppressed market values for her work. Touraine’s paintings have still not seen increased valuations, with several pieces selling for even less than they did decades ago. Unfortunately, her work sells for less than comparably acclaimed artists, and she is yet to be fully appreciated for her artist genius by society.
Despite deficiencies in monetary assessments of her work, we believe Touraine's art is priceless and consider Rainbow amongst America’s greatest artists.
Subject
Touraine’s preferred subjects were equine, Native American culture, wildlife, and the southwest. Her most prolific subject matter were burros and owls; these she quickly produced in large quantities as a young woman to support herself. Touraine has only ever had 6 paintings sell for over $1000 and all were of equids (mostly horses); although even her horse paintings have depreciated in recent years. Touraine’s Native American cultural art, although her most detailed, typically is her least sought after.
Media
Touraine’s most commended pieces are her colorful acrylic paintings. Far less appreciate are her early oil work, watercolor, gouache, and tempera. Her ink, charcoal, pencil, printmaking, and collage are consistently undervalued. Although selling handmade clothes and costumes were vital to Touraine’s early start; once established, she only gave these to her loved ones. Her regalia are arguably her most beloved and treasured works, and thus, not sold publicly.
Size
Size also plays a significant role in the valuation of Touraine’s paintings. Touraine’s large, extra-large, and panoramic works are considerably more popular and appreciated. Her small and medium works (less than 24”) regularly sell for under $100. Touraine is best known for her huge paintings (over 5 feet) in her Symbolic Americana series and art movement.
Touraine's Work
Details for several of Touraine's original pieces that sold publicly over the past few years.
Smaller original works and caricatures are readily available (usually for around $50). Authorized reproductions, lithoprints, posters, and cards are most commonly available for under $20-$40, depending on size (please verify these were authorized by the artist or heir and not illegally pirated).
Please contact us for more detailed information.
Appraisals & Authentications
Provenance
Despite considerable monetary undervaluation of Touraine’s work. There is at least one known forger of her paintings that sells her work publicly on eBay and Etsy. Her work is also unscrupulously pirated and reproduced occasionally without consent.
Please contact us if you want an appraisal/ authentication of an art piece made by Touraine or to add to Touraine's oeuvre.