VIERNES, 21 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2025 
Pierre Fontaine Workshop Sale at Hôtel Drouot Reaches €1.7 Million
T he sale of the workshop estate of Pierre Fontaine, organised by Thierry de Maigret on 21 November at Hôtel Drouot, has just concluded with a total of €1.7 million, almost all lots finding buyers.
Fifteen French museums and institutions recognised the significance of this collection dedicated to the neoclassical architect and decorator Pierre Fontaine (1762–1853), exercising their right of pre-emption on 110 of the 362 lots offered. Nearly 900 architectural drawings from his workshop traced the full span of his career and the development of his style.
This major collection highlighted the diversity of Pierre Fontaine’s work and his crucial role, alongside Charles Percier, in the birth of the Empire style. The extensive array of works and documents presented in this sale provides new insights into their collaboration. Real, vanished, or imagined, the spaces depicted—from the Louvre to La Malmaison, Rue de Rivoli to the Palais-Royal, from Rome to Lyon or the banks of the Scheldt; the Convention Hall, the gilded imperial palaces, pleasure-house gardens, and the salons of the Incroyables and Merveilleuses—unfold like the sets of an epic tale.
Through these sheets, Fontaine’s graphic universe emerges across a wealth of supports: from large-scale drawings to simple notebook pages, from meticulously finished documents to fleeting sketches, on all manner of paper, tracing the movements of an imagination at once precise, prolific, and controlled.
This major collection highlighted the diversity of Pierre Fontaine’s work and his crucial role, alongside Charles Percier, in the birth of the Empire style. The extensive array of works and documents presented in this sale provides new insights into their collaboration. Real, vanished, or imagined, the spaces depicted—from the Louvre to La Malmaison, Rue de Rivoli to the Palais-Royal, from Rome to Lyon or the banks of the Scheldt; the Convention Hall, the gilded imperial palaces, pleasure-house gardens, and the salons of the Incroyables and Merveilleuses—unfold like the sets of an epic tale.
Through these sheets, Fontaine’s graphic universe emerges across a wealth of supports: from large-scale drawings to simple notebook pages, from meticulously finished documents to fleeting sketches, on all manner of paper, tracing the movements of an imagination at once precise, prolific, and controlled.
