PARIS.- The Salon du Dessin is the world’s leading event showcasing the very best in Old, Modern and Contemporary drawing. It is also the central event for all the peripheral shows and sales focusing on paper-based arts during Drawing week (La Semaine du Dessin) when Paris becomes the global capital of drawing. With 39 exhibitors and a significant proportion of international galleries (18 from 7 different countries), the 34th edition of the Salon du Dessin will welcome 4 new exhibitors who have never exhibited at the Salon before : the American gallery Demisch Danant, which will host a solo exhibition of Eugène Isabey (1803–1886), the Antwerp based old masters gallery Lowet de Wotrenge, the contemporary art gallery La Forest Divonne established in France and Belgium, and the Jean-François Cazeau gallery. Several galleries will return after one or more years of absence : W.M.Brady & Co (USA), Françoise Livinec (F), Marty de Cambiaire (F), Nathalie Motte (F), Stephen Ongpin Fine Art (UK) and Benjamin Peronnet (F).
Le musée d’art moderne André Malraux (MuMa – Le Havre) Guest of honour at the Salon du Dessin 2026
Rooted in Le Havre, the city where artists such as Monet, Dubuffet, Friesz, Dufy and Braque, were born or grew up, and inaugurated in 1961 by André Malraux, MuMa – Le Havre holds a collection of 4,500 works, including 1,041 drawings. At the Salon du Dessin, it will present thirty-six sheets, including an Académie d'Homme by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon and a preparatory drawing for Thomas Couture's immense canvas Les Romains de la décadence. A selection of Impressionist, Nabi, Symbolist and Fauvist works – abundantly represented in the collections – will highlight the watercolours of Eugène Boudin, the pastels of Degas, Sisley, Pissarro and Guillaumin, and the drawings of Henri-Edmond Cross. To evoke the creative effervescence of the 20th century, works by Paul Jouve and Jean Dupas will embody the elegance of Art Deco, while visitors will be immersed in the vibrant blues of Raoul Dufy, a true "light- colour" born on the shores of Normandy. The chromatic compositions of Léon Gischia and Sonia Delaunay-Terk will continue this sensitive journey, which will conclude with three abstract gouaches from the 1950s by Jean-Michel Coulon, an artist from the New School of Paris.
The 19th Contemporary Drawing Prize of the Daniel & Florence Guerlain Foundation
As every year since 2010, the Contemporary Drawing Prize of the Daniel & Florence Guerlain Foundation, created in 2007, will be awarded at the Salon du Dessin. The three laureates are Cathryn Boch (born in 1968 in France), Simon Schubert (born in 1976 in Germany) and Renie Spoelstra (born in 1974 in the Netherlands). Their work will be presented at the Salon du Dessin where the Prize will be awarded on Thursday 26 March 2026.
Salon du Dessin, epicentre of drawing-related events
The Salon du Dessin is the epicentre of numerous events, both within the fair and beyond, making Paris the global capital of drawing for one week. For the 26th consecutive year, the Salon du Dessin, is organising Drawing week, a highly popular off-site programme, in partnership with around twenty institutions including the musée de l’Armée – Invalides, the Musée d’Orsay, the Gustave Moreau Museum, the BnF, the Jean-Jacques Henner Museum, the Emile Hermès Collection, the INHA, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Musée du Domaine Royal de Marly, the Montmartre Museum, the Fondation des Artistes, the Petit Palais, the Musée Carnavalet, the Académie des Beaux-Arts, the Musée national Picasso-Paris, the Musée Condé – Château de Chantilly.
The materiality of drawing
Supports, materials, tools, uses and conservation of drawing
This scholarly Symposium will explore the material diversity of drawing (techniques and supports) as well as its functional diversity (sketchbooks, illustrated correspondence, etc.) under the direction of Sarah Catala, trainee heritage curator, Paris, National Institute of Heritage, Valentine Dubard de Gaillarbois, conservator-restorer of graphic arts, Paris, Musée des Arts décoratifs, and Axel Moulinier, research affiliate at IRHIS (Institute for Historical Research of the North: IRHIS - UMR 8529), Lille, University of Lille.
Florence Chibret-Plaussu and Hervé Aaron, Appointed Co-Presidents of the Salon du Dessin
After chairing the Salon du Dessin, founded in 1991, for eleven years, Louis de Bayser has handed over the reins to Florence Chibret-Plaussu and Hervé Aaron, who will now jointly chair the Salon du Dessin.
"The Salon du Dessin is a global benchmark for drawing, the only fair in the world that attracts so many museum curators. However, we also wish to make it accessible to as wide an audience as possible. Its intimate format allows dealers and visitors - whether seasoned connoisseurs or newcomers -, to engage with one another.
We want the Salon du Dessin to serve as a gateway for new collectors, who increasingly appreciate its atmosphere, quality and diversity year after year." -- Florence Chibret-Plaussu
"The Salon du Dessin is a central, essential and vital driving force in the dynamics of the art market, which explains why galleries are returning after several years of absence. Initially a benchmark event for old master drawings, it later incorporated renowned galleries specialising in modern drawings, eventually achieving the right balance between the two. Today, more and more contemporary artists are rediscovering the importance of drawing as the foundation of all artistic pratice. Looking ahead, we must integrate major contemporary drawing galleries in order to maintain this momentum and preserve the balance between periods that is the very charm of the Salon du Dessin." -- Hervé Aaron
Florence Chibret-Plaussu
Florence Chibret-Plaussu joined the Galerie de la Présidence, founded in 1971, thirty years ago. She is now its director and has recently organised notable exhibitions devoted to artists such as Boudin, Cross, Marquet, Gromaire, Fautrier and Signac. She has played a key role in the gallery's development and international expansion, notably through participation in major European art fairs and through close relationships with leading French and international museums. Galerie de la Présidence has taken part in the Salon du Dessin since 2006, and in 2022 Florence Chibret-Plaussu joined the organising company, AEC (Agence d'Évènements Culturels), as a partner.
Hervé Aaron
Chief Executive Officer of Didier Aaron Incorporated since 1976, Hervé Aaron works in New York, Paris and London. Alongside his activity as a gallery owner, he has devoted much of his career to promoting the field of classical art, in which he is a prominent international figure, as well as the world of luxury goods. Hervé Aaron has participated in every edition of the Salon du Dessin since its inception in 1991. He was one of the founders of the Société du Salon du Dessin in 1995, which later became the Agence d'Évènements Culturels. He also served as a chairman of the Salon du Dessin for 16 years.
Le Petit Léonard children's drawing competition:
"Give the Mona Lisa a makeover"
Each year the magazine Le Petit Léonard which initiated a children’s drawing competition in partnership with the Salon du Dessin, receives hundreds of drawings from accross mainland France and the overseas territories. This year the theme of the competition, open to readers of the magazine, aged between 7 and 14, will be "Give the Mona Lisa a makeover". The drawings by 3 prizewinners in each of the 3 age groups will be exhibited at the Salon du Dessin alongside works by great masters. For the third consecutive year, thanks to the initiative of the association NOC! (Nous On Crée !), children hospitalised at the Institut Curie will take part in the competition and will also exhibit their works at the Salon du Dessin.
Partnership with Drawing Now Paris
The partnership with Drawing Now Paris art fair, initiated four years ago, continues and allows visitors of either fair to benefit from reduced-price access to the other (€25 to visit both fairs instead of €32), thereby encouraging attendance at both events. Exchanges of visibility are also planned with the Paris Print Fair, which takes place on the same dates as the Salon de Dessin, thus reinforcing Paris’s position as a leading destination for works on paper in the spring.
