The Value of Patrick Nagel Paintings (Artist Price Guide)

Patrick Nagel (1945-1989) was an American painter and illustrator. He created illustrations of women in a distinctive style that incorporated aspects of art deco and pop art. His most famous projects include designing the album cover for Duran Duran’s album Rio, and for his long standing work as an illustrator for Playboy magazine.

• Patrick Nagel Biography
• Are Patrick Nagel Illustrations Worth Much?
• Famous Patrick Nagel Illustrations and Artwork
• How to Sell Patrick Nagel Art
• More Artists Like Patrick Nagel

Who Was Patrick Nagel?

Patrick Nagel was an American pop artist and painter born in Dayton, Ohio on November 25, 1945. He grew up in Orange County, California outside of Los Angeles. After serving with the US Army in Vietnam, Nagel returned to LA and attended the Chouinard Art Institute in 1969. That same year, he graduated from California State University in Fullerton with a Bachelor’s in fine arts. 

In the early 70s, Patrick Nagel began producing art for magazines like Harper’s Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Architectural Digest. He also produced promotional art for a wide variety of corporations including IBM, ITT Corporation, and Universal Studios. Starting in 1975, he began doing illustrations for Playboy magazine. His work with the magazine was very well received and he continued to produce an art piece for each issue for the next decade. In 1981, he painted a piece for the album cover of Duran Duran’s Rio. Although he had made other album cover art before, this particular cover earned him widespread acclaim.

Patrick Nagel died of a heart attack brought on by his participation in a celebrity fundraiser “Aerobathon” on February 4, 1984 at the age of 38. An autopsy later determined that Nagel suffered from an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. He was cremated against his parent’s wishes, and his ashes were scattered in the pacific ocean. Nagel was survived by his wife, Jennifer Dumas, and his daughter from a previous marriage, Carol Nagel LaVigne. 

What is the Artist Patrick Nagel Known For?

Patrick Nagel is known for his pop art illustrations of stylish women. His minimalist, high contrast style was reminiscent of art deco and pop art styles, but with a distinctly modern twist. His work rapidly gained popularity in the early 1980s, and came to symbolize the glamor and aesthetic priorities of the decade.

The Nagel Women

The majority of Nagel’s illustrations, especially those in Playboy, were of highly stylized women in provocative clothing or poses. Known as the Nagel Women, these characters all shared some key features: bold, black hair, flawless white skin, a barely visible nose, and an aloof yet seductive expression.

Some believe that the looks of the Nagel Women are modeled after Nagel’s wife. However, he used several other models when drafting his pieces, all of whom were blond and bore no more than a passing resemblance to his finished works. His women were elegant yet distant, meant to be viewed more as beautiful objects than accurate representations of a single real woman.

Duran Duran’s Album, Rio

In 1981, Patrick Nagel designed and painted the art for the album cover of the Duran Duran album, Rio. His red, black, and white illustration of a heavily stylized grinning woman paired perfectly with the slick, energetic sound of the Rio album, and Nagel’s work with Duran Duran further solidified his place as an influencer of pop culture and art in the 1980s.

Playboy Magazine Illustrations

Nagel first began working with Playboy in 1975, which greatly expanded the audience of his “Nagel Women.” Initially, Playboy would give Nagel very specific prompts to guide his work, but by 1978 the popularity of his art had grown so much that Playboy allowed him nearly complete creative freedom in the art he submitted to the magazine. At least one of Nagel’s illustrations appeared in every Playboy issue between August 1975 and July 1984, usually in the “Playboy Advisor,” “Playboy Forum,” or “Playboy After Hours” columns. By the time of his death, he had produced approximately 285 individual works for Playboy magazine.

The Influence of Artist Patrick Nagel

Patrick Nagel was best known for his illustrations, which could be found in a variety of formats, including posters, magazines, silk screen prints, and more. In order to produce the originals of his illustrations, Nagel would first photograph models in various poses, then make simplified sketches of the photographs. His wife actually preferred his sketches to his final poster art, saying that they were more detailed and evocative.

After completing the sketches, Nagel would paint the women in acrylic, further simplifying the design to the high-contrast, low-detail finished version. Each of his pieces went through multiple rounds of stylization and simplification to transform the photographs of real women into the impersonal and stylish Nagel Women.

What Mediums did Patrick Nagel Use?

Patrick Nagel’s unique style of depicting women quickly caught on in Los Angeles and beyond. After his death, countless unlicenced reproductions and other pieces copying his style began to crop up in strip malls, hair salons, magazines, movie theaters, and more across the country. This overproliferation of his art style led to his original pieces becoming less valuable, as the market was fully saturated with similar artwork. However, interest in Patrick Nagel’s work has been experiencing a resurgence, and prices for his original art and licenced prints are once again growing.

How Much Are Patrick Nagel Artworks Worth?

Original paintings by Patrick Nagel have sold for anywhere between $8,000 to $525,000. However, most Patrick Nagel art pieces on the market are silk screen prints/serigraphs or posters. These generally sell for between $200-$5,000 depending on their size and quality. Limited quantities of prints have been in continuous production by Nagel’s estate since the 1980s, so many thousands of these items are now in circulation.