Perfumes, paintings, and costumes: Fragonard marks its centennial with an exhibition at the Monnaie de Paris

For its centenary, Fragonard leaves Grasse for Paris and takes over the Monnaie de Paris from November 13, 2026 to January 10, 2027. More than 250 works and objects, from perfumes to costumes, trace the house’s history and its know-how in an exhibition to see... and to smell.

To mark its 100th anniversary, Fragonard is anything but short of breath—or fragrance. For the first time, the Grasse-based house is unveiling its heritage collections in Paris, in the salons of the Monnaie de Paris, with “Fragonard: 100 Years of Collections and Craftsmanship,” a heritage exhibition tracing a story that is as artistic as it is olfactory, from the paintbrushes of Jean-Honoré Fragonard to the bottles of the perfume house.

The exhibition opens with a family story. Born in Grasse in 1732, Jean-Honoré Fragonard moved to Paris, where he would become one of the period’s defining artists. At the heart of his circle stand, among others, Marie-Anne Gérard, his wife, Marguerite Gérard, his sister-in-law, and several artists linked to his entourage. Some works from the Fragonard collections are presented here for the first time outside Grasse.

Parfums, peintures et costumes : Fragonard fête ses 100 ans avec une exposition à la Monnaie de Paris — Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Jeune fille délivrant un oiseau de sa cage, musée Jean-Honoré Fragonard - collection Hélène et Jean-François Costa

All told, the exhibition brings together 270 works and objects to illuminate the eighteenth century: paintings by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Marguerite Gérard, Jean-Baptiste Mallet, Jean-Marc Nattier, Nicolas de Largillière, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, and Pierre-Joseph Redouté, but also nearly a hundred items related to perfume and grooming — scent casseroles, flasks, burners, vinaigrettes and precious curios — as well as around twenty costumes and fashion accessories.

The exhibition design by Nathalie Crinière blends fine arts, court robes, precious objects and fragrance in a colorful route that engages both the eyes and the nose. Several olfactory installations invite visitors to discover scents drawn from 18th‑century formulas, ranging from vinaigrettes, potpourris and scented waters.

The tour also continues with a perfume-making workshop, designed as an introduction to the house’s craftsmanship.

This exhibition pairs Fragonard the painter with Fragonard the perfumer, set against a backdrop of a shared devotion to elegance, flowers, fabrics, desire, and the art of living well.

In short, a exhibition that clearly has a nose for fashion.

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