This includes all five new names added this year: Marianne Rosenberg from New York; Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker and Omer Tiroche, both from London; Onno Van Seggelen Fine Arts from Rotterdam and Anne Marie Verna from Zurich.
Here ATG offers a small taste of the range and variety that the participants are taking to show at the Palais Brongniart this month.
Martin Moeller & Cie
An early 20th century drawing of six studies of Napoleon’s death mask by Richard Müller (1874-1954) is one of the works that the German gallery Martin Moeller & Cie will show at the Salon.
The 20 x 15in (51 x 39cm) work, in pencil and charcoal on paper, is monogrammed and dated RM 06 and titled Totenmaske Napoleons. It is priced at €20,000.
William Brady & Co
New York dealer William Brady & Co will be showing an head of an old man gazing down by the German 19th century artist Adolph von Menzel (1815-1905) as one of its highlights at the Salon du Dessin.
Head of an old man gazing down by the German 19th century artist Adolph von Menzel (1815-1905), offered by William Brady & Co at the Salon du Dessin.
The 8¼ x 5in (21 x 13cm) drawing is a late work by the artist, signed with initials and dated 1893 in the upper left.
It is executed in graphite with stumping affording a mix of precise detail and smudged shadows to a create a sensitively rendered portrait of old age.
The drawing will be priced at €95,000.
Galerie des Modernes
The range of works on paper at the Salon spans the Renaissance through to the modern era. From the latter period is this David Hockney (b.1937) portrait of Pierre Restany, the French art critic.
Portrait of Pierre Restany, the French art critic, by David Hockney, offered by Galerie des Modernes at the Salon du Dessin. Image copyright: Galerie des Modernes, Paris.
He is shown with a cigar and glass of wine. The drawing is accompanied by the original manuscript of an interview from July 1974, the year the portrait was created.
Executed in colour crayons and pencil on paper, and signed lower right, the 10 x 8in (26 x 20.5cm) portrait is being shown by the Galerie des Modernes from Paris and is priced at €100,000.
Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker
The London dealership of Lowell Lisbon and Jonny Yarker is one of five exhibitors new to the Salon du Dessin this year.
A pencil study of the porch of East Bergholt Church by John Constable, offered by Lowell Lisbon and Jonny Yarker at the Salon du Dessin.
Among the works they are showing are several relating to the Salon’s Symposium theme of drawing and the performing arts, including three watercolour drawings of singers/dancers by Alfred Edward Chalon (1780-1860), each priced at €14,000.
One of these depicts the famous 19th century soprano soprano Giuditta Pasta in the role of Semiramide from Rossini’s opera of the same name, a work which is widely known from an engraving.
The gallery is also taking a group of 10 drawings by John Constable (1776-1837) priced between €23,000-105,000, for which it has produced a dedicated exhibition catalogue.
Among them will be a 5 x 3½in (13 x 9cm) pencil study of the porch of East Bergholt Church which was drawn in 1814, a work which has a provenance back to Richard Gubbins, a cousin of the artist.
Galerie de Bayser
One of the attractions of buying drawings is that they are often preparatory studies for a finished work.
Head of John the Baptist by Cesare da Sesto, offered by Galerie de Bayser at the Salon du Dessin.
They offer a chance to see the artist’s thought processes about a composition and an opportunity to buy a more affordable example of an artist’s oeuvre than a painting, especially in scarcer realm of Old Masters.
One such opportunity can be found on the stand of the Galerie de Bayser from Paris. It has a rare preparatory drawing of the head of John the Baptist by Cesare da Sesto (1477-1523), one of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous pupils.
The work was produced for his painting of Salome created c.1520, which is now in the collections of Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches museum.
The 10 x 7½in (26 x 19.5cm) study in sanguine on paper is priced, say the gallery, at “several hundred thousands of euros”.
Galerie Nathalie Néouze
Works of literature are often the inspiration for exhibits at the Salon. Galerie Mathieu Néouze from Paris is showing this work by Manuel Orazi (1860-1934) illustrating one of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, The Black Cat.
‘The Black Cat’ by Manuel Orazi, offered by Galerie Mathieu Néouze at the Salon du Dessin.
The 2ft x 12½in (62.5 x 32cm) charcoal, Indian ink, wash and white gouache on paper pictures the final denouement of the dark tale.
It is priced in the region of €20,000-25,000.
Salon loan exhibitions
The Salon always unearths some interesting institutional displays for its loan shows (works from The Hermitage have featured in the past).
The 2018 edition offers a selection of works from the drawings collection of the Musee d’Arts in Nantes and something a little different, a display of jewellery designs created for the House of Chaumet.
A design for a tiara from The Maison Chaumet loan exhibition at the Salon du Dessin. Image: Paris - Collection Chaumet.
The Maison Chaumet is one of the oldest Parisian jewellery houses, dating back to 1780 (it was the official jeweller to the Empress Josephine) and has an archive of more than 80,000 drawings covering over two centuries of jewellery design. These are working designs, but also works of art in their own right.
Thirty-eight of them, all themed around the tiara, a particular Chaumet speciality, will be on show at the Salon, some of them making their first public showing.
One of them is a preparatory drawing from c.1890-1900 in pen and ink with pencil traces and gouache wash on card. It shows a design for a tiara with two confronting snakes clutching a large emerald in their jaws.
