PARIS.- The tremendous success of the Salon du Dessin is undeniable. Curators of major museums and collectors from around the world flock here to make key acquisitions as soon as doors open, while new clients are attracted by the variety and quality of the exhibits. The aisles of this unrivaled, intimate salon were crowded for the opening and remained so for its 6 days, welcoming 14,500 visitors, an increase of 11.5%.

Luxury brands have understood this. Maison Chaumet was, along with the Musée d’Art de Nantes, guest of honour at this 27th edition. Museums also accompany this success: the Drawings Week, an offsite circuit that opens the doors of graphic art collections to the general public, brought together 28 partner institutions, compared to 20 last year. As for the 11th Contemporary Drawing Prize of the Daniel and Florence Guerlain Foundation, it was awarded at the Salon du Dessin to the Swedish artist Mamma Andersson.

Overview of the success of this 27th edition
As soon as the Salon opened, the de Bayser Gallery sold to a collector for several hundred thousand euros a drawing by Cesare da Sesto, one of the most famous students of Leonardo da Vinci, Head of St. John the Baptist. The gallery also sold a drawing by Nicolas Mignard, Study for the Head of the Virgin (1649-1650), for approximately €50,000; while the Musée National de Port-Royal purchased a small drawing by Bernard Picart, dated 1702, Faith Overthrowing Ignorance.

Emmanuel Marty de Cambiaire immediately sold a drawing by Guido Reni (1575-1642), a preparatory cartoon for the Annunciation in the Church of San Pietro, Head of an Angel. At the opening of the Salon a museum bought a pastel by Charles-Antoine Coypel (1694-1752), Allegory of Spring, as well as the magnificent drawing by Grégoire Huret (1606-1670), Thesis Project.

Particularly notable among brilliant sales, a sanguine by Goya, Portrait of the Painter Cesar Arbasia, circa 1798, from the German dealer Le Claire Kunst, for several hundred thousand euros. The drawing was purchased at the opening of the Salon by a Spanish collector who had made the trip especially.

Stephen Ongpin Fine Arts, the English dealer who didn’t participate in the show last year, sold two drawings by Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1765), illustrating La Fontaine fables, for €70,000 and €50,000; while a pastel by Edouard Vuillard, Model on Green Sofa, fetched €260,000, and a sanguine by Hubert Robert, The Temple of Jupiter Serapis in Pozzuoli, €120,000.

Talabardon & Gautier immediately sold a watercolour gouache by André Devambez (1867-1943), A Martyr, a strong symbolist image, destined to illustrate a poem by Baudelaire. A large drawing by Puvis de Chavanne, Study for the Provisioning of Paris, also immediately found a taker.

Martin Moeller swiftly sold 8 drawings by Richard Müller (1874-1954) (between €8,000 and €20,000 each). The German gallery had assembled a collection of drawings by this surrealist artist, who had taught George Grosz and Otto Dix. It also sold for around €80,000 a rare pastel, A Group of Five Children executed in 1901 by Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907), a major figure of modern art, to whom the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris had dedicated a retrospective in 2016.

Nathalie Motte-Masselink sold to an American museum a charcoal and chalk drawing by Henri Lebasque, A Reaper.

The Aaron Gallery successfully sold drawings by Puvis de Chavanne, Study for the Ave Picardia Nutrix Fresco; François Boucher, Mistress of the Garden; Fragonard, The staircase of the Villa d’Este.

Maurizio Nobile immediately sold a drawing by Gerolamo Giovenone to the Metropolitan Museum of New York for approximately €30,000.

Mathieu Neouze sold 4 drawings by Luc-Olivier Merson, Gargantua's Childhood, for between €15,000 and €25,000, and also swiftly sold an art deco charcoal by Belgian artist Walter Sauer for around €30,000.

Galerie Terrades sold at the opening a large piece by Valenciennes (1750-1819), dated 1795.

Galerie Prouté sold numerous old drawings among which Paolo Farinati (1524-1606), Apollo Resting on his Lyre, for over €30,000; and Palma il Giovane (1544-1628), Study of a Man Kneeling, Turned Towards the Right, for approximately €10,000.

Onno van Seggelen, a young Rotterdam-based dealer attending the show for the first time with a display of great subtlety, sold numerous pieces, including a Karel Dujardin drawing, Two Boys Making Music, which was competed for by 3 different museums. Finally the National Gallery of Art in Washington acquired it. The Dutch gallery also sold a beautiful pen and brown ink by Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom, a famous Dutch painter of the early 17th century, Beach with Fishermen; and two fine drawings by the Dutch artist Reinier Vinkeles (1741-1816).

In modern art, Helene Bailly Gallery sold a Dali drawing, Allegory, Study for Dress for Gala Posing as the Madonna, 1958, for more than €100,000; while Danielle G. Cazeau (Reginart Collection) sold a remarkable André Masson Indian ink, The Dream of Theseus, dated June 1941.

Galerie de la Présidence sold a Jean Fautrier drawing, Nude Woman, for €30,000, and several drawings by Jean Hélion.

Galerie Berès disposed of a beautiful 1956 Hans Hartung drawing, while Aktis sold Le Corbusier drawings. Early on, Galerie AB sold a surrealist portrait by Picasso from 1937-38, Indian ink on grid paper, for over €100,000.

Galerie Zlotowski sold a gouache by Fernand Léger dated 1941, The Divers, for just under €100,000, as well as several gouaches by Georges Valmier and a drawing by Sonia Delaunay.

Antoine Laurentin sold at the opening a beautiful Albert Marquet gouache, Window with Flowers in Carolles, as well as drawings by Vieira da Silva, Genevieve Asse, Manessier, and Niki de Saint-Phalle.