Rating and value of works, fashion drawings, paintings by Georges Barbier

If you own a work by Georges Barbier, and would like to know its value, our state-approved experts and auctioneers will offer you their appraisal services.

Our specialists will carry out a free appraisal of your work, and provide you with a precise estimate of its value on the current market.

Then, should you wish to sell your property, we'll direct you to the best possible arrangement to obtain the optimum price. The price of a fashion drawing can vary depending on the year, the collection concerned, or the creation in question.

Rating and value of a Georges Barbier work  

Georges Barbier drawings and works are treasures of haute couture and objets d'art that bear witness to the designer's talent and the history of fashion.

The price at which they sell on the art and auction market ranges from €10 to €94,720, a considerable delta but one that speaks volumes about the value that can be attributed to your drawings.

In 2023, an ink drawing depicting Ida Rubinstein dating from 1910 sold for €94,720, exceeding the high estimate by more than 1,400%.

Ranging in value from a classic drawing to the most sought-after

Reasons to sell a fashion drawing or creation by Georges Barbier   

A fashion drawing is a testimony to the history of a fashion house, part of the evolution of stylistic creation. These are rare pieces, at the origin of collections that have often marked the history of fashion.

For a couturier, the drawing is often the starting point of the creation  the artist's vision is put on paper for the first time. It allows the genius to take shape and be visualized so that the garment can be born.

These works in their own right are highly prized at auction and sought after by many collectors.

Georges Barbier, icon of fashion illustrators

Georges Barbier (1882 - 1932) was a painter, fashion designer and illustrator. He was born in Nantes, rue de la Contrescarpe, into a modest family.

He moved to Paris after high school, where he was a pupil of Jean Paul Laurens at the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. He enjoyed success fairly early on, exhibiting at the 1910 Salon des humoristes and at the Boutet de Monvel gallery.

Rapidly, he became a regular at the Salon des artistes décorateurs. From 1912, he worked for various newspapers and fashion magazines, for which he produced illustrations.

He took over the direction of the Journal des dames et des modes, for which he provided illustrations and drawings as well as texts. As Erté, he will also work for Vogue France.

Georges Barbier also creates sets for cinema and theater, and illustrates advertising catalogs, especially for Romantic poets : De Musset, Baudelaire, Verlaine or Théophile Gautier.

He produced a major work consisting of five volumes : Almanach des modes présentes, passées et futures en cinq volumes.

His work is heavily influenced by Léon Bakst, but also by the style and iconography of Greek vases.

Rating and value of fashion drawings at auction

The market for fashion drawings from the 1900s to the present day is evolving quite positively. It is highly segmented by use, between editorial illustrations and stencils found mainly in magazines, project gouaches (atelier/maquette), catwalk sketches, personal drawings (ex : nude of a couturier), and archival sets (atelier lots and albums).

Ranges run from around €100 for common sheets to over €20,000 for iconic and rare pieces.

Valuation factors are diverse, potentially including signature and studio annotations, medium (gouache and ink, as well as printed stencils), publication context, such as the Gazette du Bon Ton, but also other magazines.

The provenance is also vital (archives, collector's sales), the condition of the paper (foxing, yellowing) and authentication, which sometimes goes through bodies such as the Yves Saint Laurent committee.

For Georges Barbier, fashion stencils found in Gazette du Bon, Falbalas or Fanfreluches often fetch between €100 and €500 per plate depending on subject, condition and publisher, while complete sets and volumes rise sharply, with portfolios and sets going for over €1,000.

Original drawings and gouaches fetch between €700 and €4,000, with peaks of up to €10,000 for the most accomplished and decorative sheets. The price gap remains structural between stencil-printed stencils and original drawings.

For Yves Saint Laurent, fashion sketches and projects from the 1950s - 1970s show an active market, between €1,000 and €9,750 depending on subject, period, and sets (multiple lots performing).

Personal drawings (nudes) have reached recent peaks between €21,600 and €24,000 (Sotheby's Paris, January 2025). There have been several recent peaks on sheets reaching 4 to 6 times the high estimate, with a certificate from the Yves Saint Laurent committee for some lots.

Recurring bids in the major auction houses show a strong market signal with dedicated sales that value the provenance of the collection.

Other artists stand out such as Erté (Romain de Tirtoff), who produced mainly costume and fashion gouaches. His original costume gouaches show a broad base of transactions (between $800 and $4,000) per sheet depending on subject, size and the gold highlights the artist may use.

In older sales, we find results between €500 and €1,000 for more accessible studio sheets or grouped lots. The artist has a steady stream of sales (works on paper, but also bronzes and serigraphs), which structures the price references for his fashion gouaches.

Drawings attributed to Schiaparelli or to the house, meanwhile, present a fairly heterogeneous market, between €150 and €1,400 for single sheets (press, Vogue), and up to €30,000 - €40,000 when linked to surrealist collaborations such as projects with Dali.

Market segmentation

At the top end of the market for this type of work are fully-completed gouaches (colors, metallic highlights, fabric indications), annotated, with studio provenance or an identified publication, " icon " subjects (evening gowns, signature silhouettes, artistic collaborations).

In the mid-range, we find legible preparatory sketches (pencil, felt pen, light gouache) signed or attributed, sometimes in lots, with good liquidity if the period is sought after (Yves Saint Laurent in the 60s-70s or Erté in the 1920s - 1930s).

Entry-level items such as Barbier's editorial stencils and small unsigned sheets, as well as later prints, are mainly of decorative or documentary value.

It is therefore important to distinguish between originals and stencils (printing technique), to correctly determine the mediums used (gouache, inks, pastel, gold), the precise period as well as the use (fashion show, theater, press).

It's also important if possible to document provenance (ex-collection, house archives), publication or collection (plate no., magazine, salon), authentication (committee where applicable).

Recent benchmarks are very encouraging in specialist sales in Paris, London and New York, in which Saint Laurent nudes are fetching between €21,000 and €24,000, Erté gouaches between €1,000 and €4,000, and Barbier stencils between €100 and €500.

Georges Barbier's imprint on fashion history

Georges Barbier leaves a colossal legacy in fashion history. He had a considerable influence on the fashion press of the 20th century. 

The success of Georges Barbier's works at auction 

In recent years, haute couture has experienced a golden age it has rarely known. Georges Barbier's designs are particularly representative of this appeal. World-famous today, he exerted a considerable influence on twentieth-century fashion. 

The artist's hand-drawn designs bear witness to his stylistic identity and unique elegance, and allow fashion enthusiasts and collectors to plunge once again into the refined, elegant world of the French designer.

Recognizing an original fashion drawing

A fashion drawing is a work of art in its own right. Some are signed, making it possible to identify their author. It is also possible to identify an original by comparison with the designer's other productions. The latter sometimes signed his works with the pseudonym " Edward W. Larry ".

Know the value of your drawing

If you happen to own a work by Geroges Barbier, or think you might, don't hesitate to request a free appraisal using our form on our website.

A member of our team of experts and licensed auctioneers will contact you promptly to provide you with an estimate of the market value of your bag, not forgetting to send you ad hoc information about it.

If you wish to sell your work, you will also be accompanied by our specialists in order to benefit from alternatives to sell it at the best possible price, taking into account market inclinations.