I have always wanted to attend the Salon du Dessin, where all of the world’s experts and connoisseurs of drawings descend on the Palais Brongniart for a week of brilliant discussions and art-buying. It’s a bit like Paris Fashion Week for drawings enthusiasts.
It all centres around the fair itself, which features 39 exhibitors plus curated displays from the Tavolozza Foundation, Prix Guerlain, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims. Meanwhile, the children’s drawing prize – Prix du Petit Léonard – invited children to imagine new stained glass windows for Notre-Dame Cathedral.
These are my highlights:
Théo van Rysselberghe, Suzanne Mills, 1886, pastel and oil on paper on canvas (Galerie Ronny Van de Velde, stand 3)
Herman Henstenburgh, Dessin Stamboek pour Joanna Koerten Blok, watercolour, gouache, gum arabic, and white heightening (Onno van Seggelen Fine Art, stand 4)
Antoine Sublet, Ceiling project with the Ascension of Christ, 1859, graphite, brown wash, and white gouache on paper and tracing paper, mounted on paper (Sabrier & Paunet, stand 17)
Preparatory for the vault of the Église Saint-Théodore in Marseille.
François Valentin, The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine, pen and black ink, watercolour, heightened with gouache (Galerie Eric Coatalem, stand 18)
Mary Cassatt, Portrait of Pierre, pastel on paper on canvas (Galerie Eric Coatalem, stand 18)
Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Study of a Lancer, 1882, graphite on tracing paper; squared for transfer (Galerie Michel Descours, stand 21)
Preparatory for the Ludus pro patria (1882; Musée de Picardie, Amiens).
Prospero Fontana, Concert of the Muses on Mount Hélicon, pen and brown ink, brown wash with traces of black chalk; squared with black chalk; contours pricked for transfer (Pandora Old Masters Inc., stand 39)
Italian School, Holy Family, 17th century, pencil and black chalk with touches of white chalk; squared for transfer (De la Mano, stand 26)
Charles Angrand, Maternity, 1900, Conté crayon on paper (Galerie Larock-Granoff, stand 29)
Attributed to Giovanni-Battista Caracciolo, Head of a woman with downcast eyes, 17th century, pen and brown ink on fine laid paper (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims)
Salon du Dessin (26-31 March 2025) is at the Palais Brongniart, Paris 2e, https://www.salondudessin.com/en/home/
Nigel Ip 
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