Salon du dessin · 2027

Agoris analysis · updated October 2026

Key facts

• The Salon du dessin is the international collectors' drawing fair: around forty art dealer galleries, French and foreign, present old, modern and contemporary works on paper at the Palais Brongniart, place de la Bourse in Paris.
• Next edition: the 35th, from Wednesday 7 to Monday 12 April 2027.
• Organiser: L'Agence d'Evénements Culturels, a Paris company formerly known as Société du salon du dessin, which also organises Fine Arts Paris. The fair is co-chaired by Florence Chibret-Plaussu and Hervé Aaron, with Hélène Mouradian as director.
• Held annually since 1991, with a one-year break before the 1995 relaunch, a 2020 edition cancelled ten days before opening and a 2021 edition moved to 1-4 July.
• Results of the 34th edition, 25-30 March 2026: more than 14,000 visitors, including 2,300 at the preview, nearly 500 museum curators from around the world and hundreds of drawings sold. The organiser had announced 39 exhibitors.
• For exhibitors, this is a closed fair: participation is reserved for art dealer galleries, by application, and every work goes before an admission committee before the preview.

Who exhibits

Typical profile

The application form is explicit: the Salon du dessin is reserved for art dealer galleries. The fair was born in 1991 from Parisian drawing dealers, and it is still run by the profession: the Agence d'Evénements Culturels is led by a consortium of nine dealers associated with the Les Echos group, and the programming committee brings together exhibiting gallerists alongside Guy Boyer, editor-in-chief of Connaissance des Arts.

The offer covers three periods. Old master drawings are the historic core, modern drawings were added, then contemporary ones: in 2009, the fair hosted three contemporary art galleries among its 36 stands. The balance between periods is a deliberate editorial choice: in the 2026 press kit, Hervé Aaron says he wants to bring important contemporary drawing galleries into the fair in future in order to preserve it.

The format is compact, "intimate" according to Florence Chibret-Plaussu in the 2026 press kit. Published numbers range from 36 exhibitors in 2008 to 39 in 2012 and in 2026, on stands numbered 1 to 39 at the latest edition. Several galleries share a stand: Bottegantica and Aleandri Arte Moderna, Härb Nuti London and W. M. Brady & Co., Benjamin Peronnet and Ambroise Duchemin.

Notable exhibitors

The 2026 exhibitor list is online; the 2027 list has not yet been published. The 2026 edition notably brought together, on the Paris side, Didier Aaron & Cie, Galerie de Bayser, Galerie Berès, Galerie Éric Coatalem, Galerie Michel Descours, Galerie de la Présidence, Paul Prouté, Galerie Terrades and Galerie Dina Vierny; on the international side, Stephen Ongpin Fine Art and Stern Pissarro Gallery in London, Enrico Frascione in Florence, Paolo Antonacci in Rome, Martin Moeller & Cie in Hamburg, Galerie Florian Sundheimer in Munich, DELAMANO Old Masters in Madrid, Pandora Old Masters and Demisch Danant in New York.

Four galleries exhibited for the first time: Demisch Danant, the Antwerp gallery Lowet de Wotrenge, La Forest Divonne and Galerie Jean-François Cazeau. The press kit also announced the return of six galleries after one or more years of absence, including W. M. Brady & Co. and Stephen Ongpin Fine Art. The report published by the organiser counts 17 international galleries, 5 of them Italian.

Visitor quality

The fair's distinctive feature is its institutional density. The 2026 report mentions nearly 500 museum curators, among them those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty Museum, the Rijksmuseum, the British Museum or the National Museum in Stockholm, and of most French museums, from the Louvre to the Musée d'Orsay by way of the Centre Pompidou, Chantilly, Fontainebleau and Versailles, as well as regional museums.

These institutions come to buy. The same report cites acquisitions from the preview onwards: two allegories by Grégoire Huret sold for €100,000 by Galerie de Bayser to an American collector for a museum, sheets reserved at Paul Prouté by the Petit Palais and the Musée de Fontainebleau, and a solo show of Eugène Isabey at Demisch Danant noticed by the Met and the Getty from opening.

The price range is wide. The sales cited run from €1,000-€4,000 per piece for some thirty drawings by Pierre Bonnard at Alexis Pentcheff to sheets priced around €100,000, such as a Guercino at Stephen Ongpin or a 1920 Picasso at Dina Vierny. The fair also works with a wider public: collectors, experts, researchers and enthusiasts, whom the organiser seeks to broaden with a trail dedicated to new collectors.

Events & community

Cultural programme

In recent years, every edition has hosted a guest of honour, a museum or foundation, which shows a selection from its drawings collection at the fair. In 2026, the Musée d'art moderne André Malraux in Le Havre (MuMa) presented thirty-six sheets; in 2025, it was the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Reims. The 2027 guest had not been announced at the time of writing.

The Rencontres internationales du Salon du dessin, a scholarly conference held since 2006 whose proceedings are published, take place in the small auditorium of the Palais Brongniart, free for holders of a fair ticket. Their theme covers 2026 and 2027: "La matière du dessin. Supports, matières, outils, usages et conservation du dessin" (the substance of drawing: supports, materials, tools, uses and conservation). After two sessions devoted to supports and materials in 2026, the 2027 edition is due to focus on artists' gestures and on posthumous gestures, those of market players and restorers.

Beyond the fair's walls, the Semaine du dessin, created in 1999 by the fair, opens the graphic arts departments and exhibitions of more than fifteen museums and institutions in Paris and the Île-de-France. Its 26th edition, in 2026, notably involved the BnF, the Musée d'Orsay, the Petit Palais, the INHA, the Beaux-Arts de Paris and the Musée Condé in Chantilly.

New in 2026

Two initiatives were introduced or reintroduced in 2026. The "Nouveaux Collectionneurs" trail flags affordably priced drawings, between €2,000 and €8,000, on participating stands. The Dessins Anonymes stand, a tradition the fair has taken up again, brings together sheets that the exhibitor has not been able to attribute: they are offered for sale and visitors can record their attribution ideas in a notebook.

Prizes and competitions

The Contemporary Drawing Prize of the Daniel and Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation had been awarded at the fair since 2010. Its 19th edition, awarded in 2026 to Renie Spoelstra, is the last: Florence and Daniel Guerlain have announced the dissolution of their foundation, whose assets are being transferred to the Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Pompidou, as the fair relayed on 30 June 2026. The fair thus loses one of its highlights devoted to contemporary work.

The children's drawing competition organised with the magazine Le Petit Léonard shows the winners at the fair every year. Since 2024, the association NOC ! (Nous On Crée !) has involved children hospitalised at the Institut Curie.

Community & networks

The fair is part of a Parisian paper calendar in spring. The 2026 press kit announced a partnership with the Drawing Now fair (€25 to visit both fairs instead of €32) and visibility exchanges with the Paris Print Fair, held on the same dates. These arrangements remain to be confirmed for 2027.

On Agoris, the other Parisian art fairs listed are Art Paris, Art Basel Paris and Paris Photo. The Salon du dessin sets itself apart by devoting itself to a single medium, and by the weight of museum curators in its visitor base.

On site: what to know

The fair takes place at the Palais Brongniart, place de la Bourse, 75002 Paris. By metro, take line 3 to Bourse, or lines 8 and 9 to Grands Boulevards. Buses 20 and 32 stop at Choiseul, and 39, 74 and 85 at Richelieu-4 septembre. The Bourse car park has 600 spaces.

For security reasons, suitcases, rucksacks, bags larger than 40 x 45 cm and bulky items must be left in the cloakroom. The fair is accessible to people with reduced mobility: ground-floor access from rue du 4 Septembre via a platform lift, lifts to the various levels, a wheelchair available on request and priority access to queues by notifying security staff.

Opening hours and prices for the 2027 edition have not yet been published. For reference, the 2026 edition opened with a press visit and a preview the day before opening to the public, and included a late opening on Thursday.

How much does it cost to exhibit

L'Agence d'Evénements Culturels does not publish any price list. Participation goes through an online application that asks for a presentation of the gallery, the list of its recent exhibitions and publications, and works that could be shown. Financial terms are not published. The real cost of taking part generally comprises the space, the transport and insurance of the works, and the staff needed over six days.

Preparing your visit

For exhibitors

• Apply to the organiser with a polished file: selection is based on the gallery's presentation, its history of exhibitions and publications and the works proposed.
• Plan for the inspection of the works: all of them are physically examined by the admission committee just before the preview. This committee, organised by specialism, gives only an advisory opinion, and the works remain shown under the sole responsibility of the gallery.
• Treat the preview as the key commercial moment: in 2026, many sales, including to museums, were concluded that very evening.
• Think of the hang as an argument: exhibitors were more numerous than usual to offer monographic exhibitions in 2026, and the organiser's report highlights them heavily.
• Consider the Nouveaux Collectionneurs trail for part of your stock, with sheets between €2,000 and €8,000, and the Dessins Anonymes stand for a sheet awaiting attribution.

For decision-maker visitors

• Attend the preview if you have an invitation: this is when institutions and major collectors buy.
• Combine your visit with the Semaine du dessin, whose visits to graphic arts departments are by reservation, and with the Rencontres internationales, accessible with the fair ticket.
• Consult the edition catalogue, which brings together all the exhibitors and their key works: the 2026 one is online on the official website.
• Plan to leave luggage in the cloakroom: security rules apply at the entrance.

CSR policy & initiatives

Neither the fair's website nor that of the Agence d'Evénements Culturels publishes a CSR policy, a carbon footprint or an ISO 20121 certification. No Commitments or Sustainability section appears in their menus.

The best-documented social commitment is the link with the Institut Curie: charity dinners held at the fair in 2023 and 2024 for the benefit of the institute, and the participation of hospitalised children in the drawing competition through the association NOC ! (Nous On Crée !), which shows their works at the fair.

The venue provides a documented framework. The Palais Brongniart website, operated by a company in the GL events Venues division, presents the GL events group's sustainable development approach, backed by the "Think Green" programme, as its environmental policy. Its stated priorities are managing event waste, controlling the energy use of its buildings, optimising water consumption and CO2 emissions linked to its activities. No numerical target specific to the site is published.

How the fair has evolved

Trajectory analysis

The Salon du dessin found its form early and has changed it little. Born at the Hôtel George V with seventeen Parisian exhibitors, relaunched in 1995 by nine dealers after a one-year break, it internationalised from 1996 with German and Swiss galleries, then settled in 2004 at the Palais de la Bourse, another name for the Palais Brongniart. Published numbers since 2008 stay between 36 and 39 exhibitors: growth no longer comes from volume but from the ecosystem built around the fair, the Semaine du dessin, the Rencontres internationales, guests of honour and publications.

This model rests on a rare asset, the relationship with museums. The 2026 results, with nearly 500 curators and institutional acquisitions from the preview, show that this is where the value of a stand lies, more than in the attendance figure.

The 2027 edition comes with three shifts. Governance has changed: Florence Chibret-Plaussu and Hervé Aaron have succeeded Louis de Bayser, chairman for eleven years. The fair is seeking to broaden its buyer base with the Nouveaux Collectionneurs trail, and to strengthen contemporary work just as the Guerlain Prize, one of the fair's highlights devoted to contemporary drawing, disappears. Finally, the dates are shifting from the historic late-March slot, regained in 2023, to early April.

All data that does not cite a source comes from the organiser's website.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (salondudessin.com).