March Highlights at Drouot

Following the Trait et Feuille exhibition in 2025, Drouot presents two major events during this year's Salon du dessin, reflecting the eclecticism and breadth of the auction house. The Grand Hall will be dedicated to the remarkably talented French sculptor Anne Barrès, born in 1938, whose works will be displayed alongside their preparatory drawings — an echo of her creative process and multifaceted talent. The Salle 9 will be devoted to Drouot's regular Œuvres Choisies, with a particular emphasis on drawing and major works offered for sale, including the Portrait de Susanna Pfeffinger by Hans Baldung Grien, as well as works by such diverse masters as Picasso, Matisse, Munch, Miró, Chagall, Vasarely, and the most Parisian of illustrators, Toulouse-Lautrec. Breaking new ground, Drouot has entrusted Judith Touitou, an Artistic Director from the world of Parisian fashion, with curating a journey of singular and distinctive aesthetic.
 

On Friday 20 March 2026, Mirabaud-Mercier will offer at auction an unprecedented and exceptionally rare ensemble comprising the entirety of the library of Doctor Marcel Zara, friend and physician to numerous artists of the Dada and Surrealist movements. A passionate lover of poetry, Doctor Marcel Zara (1911–1974) was also the doctor of many writers of his time, a great number of whom became his close friends. This collection, estimated at 600,000–800,000 €, has been preserved by his heirs. Of remarkable cohesion, it comprises nearly 350 volumes and manuscripts from the 19th and 20th centuries devoted to poetry, including precious copies bound by the greatest bookbinders, as well as paintings and drawings by Surrealist artists such as Wifredo Lam, Oscar Dominguez, and Marie Laurencin.

Among the most precious works, the collection features rare lots by Apollinaire: a rare copy of the mythical Case d'Armons (lot 75 – estimate: 50,000–70,000 €); Le Bestiaire illustrated by Dufy and bound by Bonet (lot 70 – estimate: 25,000–35,000 €), accompanied by a further set of proofs; and one of 20 copies of the Calligrammes printed on vellum, with a dedication to André Rouveyre (lot 72 – estimate: 20,000–25,000 €), also bound by Bonet.
 

Beaussant Lefèvre & Associés, in collaboration with the cabinet de Bayser, will bring to auction at the Hôtel Drouot on Monday 23 March 2026 — the eve of the Salon du dessin — an hitherto unknown work by Hans Baldung Grien (1484/85–1545), one of the greatest masters of the Renaissance. Executed in silverpoint on paper prepared with bone dust — a technique favoured by the virtuosos of the Renaissance — this drawing has remained in the family of its subject, Susanna Pfeffinger (1465–1538), for over 500 years, passed down from generation to generation. It is the only silverpoint drawing by Baldung still in private hands. Indeed, the number of drawings by Baldung remaining in private collections can be counted on the fingers of one hand, out of a total of approximately 250 recorded works (estimate: 1,500,000–3,000,000 €).
 

Le 24 mars prochain, la maison Néo Enchères, avec le concours de l’expert Florian Bourguet, proposera un ensemble inédit de planches et dessins originaux de Rahan, issu de la collection la collection de Jean-François Lécureux, fils du créateur de cette bande dessinée mythique.Créé en 1969 par Roger Lécureux et André Chéret, Rahan apparaît pour la première fois le 24 février 1969 dans le premier numéro de Pif Gadget. Le «fils des âges farouches» s’impose immédiatement comme l’un des héros les plus marquants de la bande dessinée française, dont 40 % des lecteurs sont des lectrices, illustrant son attrait auprès de tous les publics. Humaniste, curieux et affranchi des superstitions, Rahan incarne un idéal de progrès, de transmission et de protection – des enfants, des femmes et de la nature – qui a traversé les générations.
 

The sale of Grand Masters of the Print and the Poster, organised by Ferri at the Hôtel Drouot on 27 March 2026, pays tribute to some of the most significant artists in graphic art of the late 19th century. At the heart of this selection are works by Mary Cassatt, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Edvard Munch — three artists who profoundly transformed the expressive possibilities of printmaking. Among the outstanding pieces in the sale, La Toilette (Woman Bathing) by Mary Cassatt, executed around 1891, perfectly embodies the artist's technical and aesthetic boldness (estimate: 60,000–80,000 €). The centrepiece of the sale, however, is L'Angoisse (Angstgefühl) by Edvard Munch, a lithograph made in 1896. Printed in an edition of approximately one hundred for the first Album des peintres-graveurs published by Ambroise Vollard, the print revisits the motif of a painting Munch had made two years earlier (estimate: 250,000–300,000 €).
 

Ader presents on Friday 27 March, at 1.30 pm at the Hôtel Drouot, a sale of old and modern drawings of distinguished quality, bringing together more than three hundred lots spanning six centuries of the history of drawing. This session features several highlights, including a major pastel by Vuillard, an exceptional group of sheets by Vallotton, and a drawing of great importance by Girodet. The undisputed centrepiece of the sale is the pastel by Édouard Vuillard entitled Représentation d'une pièce de Molière dans la salle des Cariatides du Louvre (lot 131), estimated at between 200,000 and 300,000 euros. Executed in 1922 on bistre paper laid down on canvas, this large-format work documents the celebration of the tercentenary of Molière's birth, performed in this historic room where the playwright himself once appeared before Louis XIV.

The Impressionists take centre stage at Paris Enchères – Collin du Bocage on 27 March, with two major works. First, a pastel by Alfred Sisley entitled Le canal du Loing à Saint-Mammès, 1883 (lot 126), estimated at between 100,000 and 150,000 €. In the early 1880s, Sisley had settled in the region of Moret-sur-Loing, captivated by the picturesque banks of the Loing and the Seine as they meet at Saint-Mammès. The second highlight of the sale is La nymphe endormie by Henri Lebasque (lot 104), estimated at between 50,000 and 70,000 €. This large-format oil on canvas is, according to the artist's daughter, one of the earliest nude paintings by Lebasque, executed in the gardens of his property in Saint-Tropez. The reclining figure, bathed in Mediterranean light filtered through the vegetation, bears witness to the warm Post-Impressionist touch that defines Lebasque's singular style.
 

Daguerre will present on this sale-rich 27 March a session devoted to drawings and paintings drawn principally from the Collection L. The star lot of the sale is unquestionably the Allégorie de l'Été by Jan Brueghel the Younger and the workshop of Hendrick van Balen (lot 130), estimated at between 80,000 and 120,000 €. This oak panel depicts in an enchanted garden the Nereid Amphitrite and the goddess Ceres, embodying the allegories of Water and Earth. The two female figures receive the fruits of the earth from a satyr and a putto, whilst a nymph advances towards them in a gesture of homage.

The remainder of the session offers a panorama of remarkable coherence: sketches by Vien, Lajoue, and Dufresnoy; still lifes by Vallayer-Coster and Oudry; drawings by Pajou and Hubert Robert copied after the antique in Rome; and a large painting by Lemonnier depicting Louis XIV attending the unveiling of Puget's statue of Milo of Croton (lot 153, estimate: 20,000–30,000 €), from the former collection of Eugène de Beauharnais and the Dukes of Leuchtenberg.
 

Wattebled & Portay will present on 31 March at the Hôtel Drouot an album bringing together 52 works on paper in watercolour, gouache, and pencil by the Lille family of miniaturists Van Blarenberghe: figure studies, designs for snuff boxes, landscapes, and copies after the masters. Among these sheets, the most remarkable are those preparatory to the snuff box of the Duc de Choiseul by Louis-Nicolas Van Blarenberghe, minister to Louis XV, executed in 1770–1771 and now preserved at the Musée du Louvre (estimate: 30,000–50,000 €). Two snuff boxes made for the Duke are known today, both adorned with miniatures by Louis-Nicolas Van Blarenberghe. The first, held at the Musée du Louvre, depicts three rooms of the Hôtel de Choiseul, two reception rooms of his ministerial apartments at Versailles, and the Grande Galerie du Louvre. The second, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is devoted to the Château de Chanteloup, another residence of the Duke, long since demolished.

Giquello presents on 31 March, in Salle 1 of the Hôtel Drouot, its Collections sale — an ambitious selection of works from French and European private collections, led by some of the most celebrated names in the history of art. The centrepiece of the session is a charcoal drawing by Henri Matisse (lot 19), Femme à la voilette et au manteau persan, signed and dated December 1939, a striking testament to the artist's Nice period. Having taken up residence at the Hôtel Regina following the outbreak of war, Matisse rediscovered in drawing a sovereign freedom. His model Lydia D., draped in the Persian coat that would reappear in several wartime canvases, is here rendered with sobriety and expressiveness. A work of full maturity, estimated at between 200,000 and 300,000 euros. A major discovery in this session, Étude de tête de femme tournée vers la droite perfectly embodies the influence of Albrecht Dürer on the art of his time and on the members of his Nuremberg workshop, as seen in this almost naturalistic portrait by Hans Süss von Kulmbach (lot 49 – estimate: 200,000–300,000 €).