Fragonard Perfume House Marks Centenary with Exhibition at Monnaie de Paris

The Monnaie de Paris will host the centenary exhibition of the Fragonard perfume house from 13 November 2026 to 10 January 2027. For the first time, 270 paintings, bottles, and costumes will leave Grasse and be displayed in the 18th-century salons of the Monnaie de Paris. The exhibition opens with a drawing purchased by Fragonard in 2013, previously unseen, in which Jean-Honoré Fragonard sketches a family anecdote in a sequence resembling a comic strip; this scene is reenacted in costume in the grand salon. The display includes about 100 paintings by Fragonard and artists such as Marguerite Gérard, his sister-in-law, pupil, and collaborator, as well as Nattier, Largillière, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, and Vigée Le Brun. Approximately 100 perfume bottles, cassolettes, incense burners, and vinegar bottles are shown, along with around 20 court silhouettes. The exhibition, designed by Nathalie Crinière, features a sensory journey with scents reconstructed from old formulas. The house, founded in 1926 by a Grasse perfumer who adopted the name of the painter from the same city, has spent a century collecting these works. The century is portrayed as it dreamed itself, torn between Rousseau's virtue and Les Liaisons dangereuses. The Monnaie de Paris is located at 11 quai de Conti, 75006 Paris, near Pont-Neuf metro station. Opening hours are daily except Monday, 11am-6pm, with late opening on Wednesday until 9pm. Admission is €12, reduced €8, free for under 26.