Sam Peckinpah Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Sam Peckinpah (1925 - 1984) A life lived dangerously like the characters in his films, in constant conflict with the producers. An irascible director and sensitive and innovative author, he was among the creators of the modern western. Read the full biography

Sam Peckinpah (1925 - 1984) A life lived dangerously like the characters in his films, in constant conflict with the producers. An irascible director and sensitive and innovative author, he was among the creators of the modern western. His cinema went through the years of New Hollywood, becoming an authoritative and unconventional voice. Peckinpah evoked various responses to his often violent films that typically existed on a warped moral plane between eras and cultures, with ambiguous quests for identity and redemption undertaken by outcasts and irretrievably lost enemies. After receiving his start on television, Peckinpah made a powerful statement with only his second film, "Ride the High Country" (1962), a revisionist Western that presaged the greatness that would come later in the decade. Peckinpah emerged triumphant with “The Wild Bunch” (1969), a classic revisionist western that marked the true pinnacle of his creative powers. His later films, "Cross of Iron" (1976), "Convoy" (1978) and "The Osterman Weekend" (1983) continued to showcase his genius. Peckinpah established himself as a great director capable of eliciting strong emotional responses with his kinetic and often operatic images.