Claire Tabouret
ValueEgon research · Artist market profile
The market, in context.
Explore Claire Tabouret’s auction history alongside the exhibitions, collections and gallery relationships behind the market.
Gallery relationships
Almine Rech, Perrotin, Night Gallery, Pace Gallery (secondary), Baldwin Contemporary (secondary)
Explore representation →Institutional research
Collections & exhibitions
Read holdings, exhibition history and their qualifications in context.
Read the institutional research →
Egon investment scores
Market position
Research updated
Recent auction highlight
A result from Egon’s tracked auction sales; historical auction records are researched separately. Price including buyer’s premium.
Pricing
Primary market
Gallery-controlled and generally undisclosed — recent gallery listings show 'Request Price' rather than published figures. Contact Almine Rech (Paris/Brussels/London/New York/Shanghai/Gstaad), Perrotin and Night Gallery (Los Angeles) for current primary pricing and availability.
2025-2026 current
Portrait-scale canvases and works on paper concentrated in the $18k–$105k band at Phillips and Sotheby's per the EGON database, several results multiples of estimate (e.g. Jun 2026 self-portrait at $83,850 p.i. on a $31.2k–$45.5k hammer estimate) and at least one below-estimate result (Apr 2025). Museum-scale group paintings were not tested at auction in 2025-26 in the sources checked.
- 2014-2018 pre boom
- Primary-market group portraits in the low-to-mid five figures rising toward six figures; secondary activity thin.
Editions vs unique
Perrotin- and Dilecta/Fondation Pinault-published prints and offset lithographs (e.g. 'The Siblings', ed. 75; 'Self-Portrait with a Hood (Pink)', ed. 50) trade in the hundreds to low thousands at regional houses. Exclude editions when reading average-price statistics.
2019-2020 transition
Almine Rech sold the group portrait 'Reception Hall' (2019) for $150,000 at Frieze London 2019 — the clearest published primary benchmark for a large canvas at that date; first quadruple-estimate Hong Kong result (HK$3.5m) in summer 2020.
2021 speculative peak
Two records within three months: £622,500 (March, London) and $870,000 (May, New York); Artsy noted large group portraits were then 'routinely' making six figures.
2022-2024 normalisation
Large signature diptych at HK$3.81m (~US$490k), Phillips Hong Kong evening sale, Nov 2024 — strong, but below the 2021 dollar peak for a far larger work.
Liquidity
Assessment
Moderate-to-good depth for a living mid-career painter: continuous offering across Phillips, Sotheby's and Christie's plus regional houses, but 2025-26 consignments skew to smaller works and editions rather than the museum-scale group paintings that set the record.
Sell through
88% across 8 settled lots in the EGON canonical population; Artnet and MutualArt show a long multi-year lot history, consistent with an established but not high-turnover market.
- Depth limitation
- Record below $1m; the top of the market depends on a narrow group of large 'Les Débutantes'-type canvases that appear infrequently.
Comparables
Repriced in the same 2020-21 cohort as Salman Toor (record $867,000, Sotheby's May 2021), Nina Chanel Abney ($990,000, Christie's May 2021) and, at a higher level, Jonas Wood. Within the French market, Gazette Drouot reported after the Notre-Dame announcement that she ranked ninth among the most highly valued French artists in history and described her as the market's highest-priced living French artist — an attributed claim with undisclosed methodology, not independently verified here.
Collector base
Note
The Notre-Dame commission has given her mainstream public recognition in France far beyond the usual contemporary-art audience — an unusual demand driver and also a source of reputational controversy.
Profile
French institutional and corporate collections, US private foundations, and Asian buyers (Hong Kong evening-sale placements). Artsy reported roughly a 63% year-on-year increase in platform inquiries from 2019 to 2020.
Named collections and patrons
François Pinault / Pinault Collection (Bourse de Commerce, Paris and Venice) — Gazette Drouot notes she was 'noticed by' Pinault; the Brant Foundation, New York; Rema Hort Mann Foundation; Emerige Collection, Fondation Colas and Agnès b. Collection (Paris); Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas (exhibited); the Scantland Collection, gifted to the Columbus Museum of Art; Leuwen Foundation, Belgium; Kistefos Museum, Norway.
Auction history
Previous record
£622,500 (~$862,229) — 'The Last Day' (2016), Christie's London, 23 March 2021 (Artsy; Gazette Drouot cites $863,200 for the same lot — the '$863,000' figure on aggregator pages refers to this London sale, not a separate record)
Market inflection
Artsy dated the take-off of her secondary market to summer 2020, when 'Les déguisements (Disguises)' (2015) more than quadrupled its high estimate at Phillips Hong Kong to HK$3.5m (~US$451,600)
Volume indicators
Artnet lists 163 auction results and 180 works on its artist page (Feb 2026 snapshot): 98 prints and multiples, 60 paintings, 20 works on paper. MutualArt lists 234 works at auction. A large share of lot count is editions, inflating volume relative to unique-painting depth.
Current public record
$870,000 — 'Les débutantes (bleu azur)' (2014), Christie's New York post-war and contemporary day sale, May 2021, against a $300,000 high estimate (Artsy, 14 May 2021)
Soft results and buy ins
Sotheby's, April 2025: 'Sans Titre (Les Diadèmes)' sold at $35,672 premium-inclusive against a $43,212–$64,818 hammer-basis estimate — below the low estimate even before adjusting for premium, evidencing selective softness in secondary works on paper. A systematic pre-2025 buy-in history was not retrieved from the sources checked; that is an absence of retrieved data, not evidence that no lots were bought in.
Post peak large format datapoint
'Les Débutantes (Dark Water)' (2016), acrylic and fabric on canvas diptych, 330 x 440 cm overall, Phillips Hong Kong Modern & Contemporary Evening Sale, 25 November 2024: sold HK$3,810,000 premium-inclusive against an estimate of HK$2,800,000–3,800,000 (~US$359,000–487,000) — a top-of-estimate result for a museum-scale signature work, roughly half the 2021 dollar record
Market position
Established international mid-career painter with museum-backed demand, a sub-$1m record, and a market that retraced from the 2021 speculative peak while stabilising in 2025-26 at firm mid-five to low-six-figure levels for portrait-scale work.
Investment outlook
Risks
1) Supply response — publicity-driven consignments can cap prices; 2) the substantive challenge by Sites & Monuments is still pending on the merits, so delay or an adverse ruling remains possible even after the 20 May 2026 refusal to suspend; 3) the record was set in the 2021 speculative window and has not been re-tested — a record price is not a floor; 4) broader softness (Artnet recorded an 8.8% fall in fine-art auction sales in H1 2025 versus H1 2024, average price per lot at a decade low).
Base case
The Notre-Dame installation (scheduled mid-October / late 2026) is a documented, date-specific public catalyst that will put her name before a global mainstream audience; comparable interventions (Buren's Palais-Royal columns, Pei's Louvre pyramid) were contested before becoming canonical. Expect firm demand for portrait-scale canvases and renewed consignment supply as owners sell into the publicity.
Scenarios
Analyst scenarios, not measured returns or observed appreciation. Upside: installation proceeds on schedule, a major museum survey follows, and a fresh large 'Les Débutantes' canvas tests the $1m threshold within 24-36 months. Base: continued $50k–$250k clearing for medium canvases, low-to-mid six figures for large ones. Downside: post-event attention fade plus a consignment glut compresses works on paper back toward the $20k–$40k band.
Entry guidance
Judgment, not a guarantee. The defensible entry is a documented unique painting from a signature series (Les Débutantes / Makeup / self-portraits) rather than an edition; on current 2025-26 clearing levels expect $50k–$110k for portrait-scale canvases and strong works on paper. Bidding materially above that band in the weeks around the October 2026 installation risks paying for publicity that may not persist; waiting into 2027 supply is the lower-risk route. Editions provide access at low cost but carry the weakest resale economics.
Egon database 2025 onward
- Upcoming
- 1 lot flagged as upcoming in the database
Provenance
Figures below come from the EGON internal auction database (2025 onward; Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, Bonhams), not from web sources, and are not merged with externally sourced prices.
Notable lots
- Self-portrait with George (pale) — $83,850 p.i., Phillips, Jun 2026 (est. $31,200–$45,500 hammer basis)
- Portrait with Feathers — $103,200 p.i., Phillips, May 2026 (est. $60,000–$80,000)
- Les Masques (De Profil) — $60,081 p.i., Phillips, Oct 2025 (est. $53,228–$79,842)
- Patricia with her eyes closed (pale) — $48,065 p.i., Phillips, Oct 2025 (est. $15,968–$23,953)
- Sans Titre (Les Diadèmes) — $35,672 p.i., Sotheby's, Apr 2025 (est. $43,212–$64,818)
- Cached lot count
- 7
- Cached sold count
- 5
- Highest in database
- $103,200 premium-inclusive — 'Portrait with Feathers', Phillips, May 2026 (estimate $60,000–$80,000 hammer basis; not directly comparable)
- Recent price sample
- 7 sold lots, $17,817–$103,200 premium-inclusive, average $56,754
Reconciliation note
The database high ($103,200, May 2026) is NOT the artist's auction record; it reflects the small and medium works dominating 2025-26 consignments. The external record remains $870,000 (Christie's NY, 2021), with a 2024 Hong Kong evening-sale diptych at HK$3.81m in between. The database high is not a ceiling and the 2021 record is not a floor.
- Canonical sell through
- 88% across 8 settled lots (all catalogued lots at least 90 days old; 100% settled)
Institutional presence
Research updated
Upcoming
- Notre-Dame de Paris window installation, scheduled mid-October / end of 2026 — the largest public event of her career
- 'Les Créatures', Almine Rech Gstaad, 10 July – 3 September 2026 (fifth solo with the gallery; commercial, not institutional)
- Museum Voorlinden, 'Weaving Waters, Weaving Gestures', 2026
- Substantive hearing of the Sites & Monuments challenge before the Paris administrative court — date not fixed
Commissions
Date
Won December 2024; fabrication with Atelier Simon-Marq, Reims; removal of existing windows from June 2026; installation scheduled mid-October / end of 2026
- Status
- documented commission, subject to pending litigation on the merits
- Project
- Six stained-glass windows, south aisle of the nave, Notre-Dame de Paris
- Date
- 2017
- Note
- Commissioned by designer Pierre Yovanovitch; her first in-situ public work
- Project
- 'Les Enfants de la Chapelle', immersive fresco, Chapelle du Château de Fabrègues, Provence
Exhibitions
Biennials
59th Venice Biennale 2022 (collateral event, Palazzo Cavanis) and 60th Venice Biennale 2024 (Holy See Pavilion, group). Neither is a main-exhibition invitation by the Biennale curator.
Significant group
- 'With My Eyes', Pavilion of the Holy See, 60th Venice Biennale, Giudecca women's detention centre, 2024
- 'Dressing like an Artist', Louvre-Lens, 2024
- 'Women Painting Women', Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 2022
- 'The Echo of Picasso', Museo Picasso Málaga and Almine Rech New York, 2023
- 'Incarnations, Acte 2', macLYON, 2023
- 'Next Door', Yuz Museum, Shanghai, 2023
- 'Friends & Lovers', FLAG Art Foundation, New York, 2023
- 'Licked by the Waves | New Bathers in Art', Museum MORE, Gorssel, 2024
- 'Peindre, dit-elle', Musée départemental d'art contemporain de Rochechouart and Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dole (curated by Julie Crenn / Annabelle Ténèze)
- Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection, Paris
- Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Columbus Museum of Art
Solo museum and institutional
Scroll horizontally if needed →
| Year | Title | Venue | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Weaving Waters, Weaving Gestures | Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, NL | Not supplied |
| 2025-2026 | D'un seul souffle / In a Single Breath | Grand Palais, Paris (opened 18 Dec 2025, on view to late March 2026) | Presented the six full-scale Notre-Dame window maquettes, each over 20 feet high |
| 2025 | Entre la mémoire et l'oubli / Between Memory and Oblivion | Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, France | Not supplied |
| 2025 | Moonlight Shadow | Night Gallery, Los Angeles (commercial) | Not supplied |
| 2024 | L'éloquence des larmes | Château La Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France | Not supplied |
| 2024 | FORCES VIVES: Claire Tabouret x Lee Miller | Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval, Hauterives (two-person) | Not supplied |
| 2023 | Au Bois d'Amour | ICA Miami | Not supplied |
| 2023 | Immortelle | MO.CO — Montpellier Contemporain | Not supplied |
| 2022 | I am spacious, singing flesh | Palazzo Cavanis, Venice — collateral event of the 59th Venice Biennale | Not supplied |
| 2021 | Baigneuse Assise | Musée Picasso, Paris | Not supplied |
| 2020 | La Ronde | Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen | Not supplied |
| 2020 | Mirrors and Reflections | Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon | Not supplied |
| 2017 | One Day I Broke a Mirror (with Yoko Ono) | Villa Medici / Académie de France à Rome | Not supplied |
| 2017 | The Dance of Icarus | Yuz Museum, Shanghai (44 paintings plus a monumental new cycle) | Not supplied |
| 2016 | Sparkling Ghosts | Museo Canonica, Rome | Not supplied |
Museum tier
Tier 1 — Centre Pompidou / Musée national d'art moderne (holding reported by the artist's galleries and by Phillips cataloguing; not confirmed against a Centre Pompidou collection record in this research)
Publications
Items
- Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art (University of Oregon) artist resource document, 2024
- Grand Palais exhibition programme, 'D'un seul souffle', 2025-26
Summary
Exhibition catalogues accompany the museum solos (Yuz Museum, Rouen, MO.CO, ICA Miami, Rennes, Grand Palais). No catalogue raisonné or independent academic monograph was identified in the sources checked; the published literature to date is largely institution- or gallery-linked.
- Tier framework
- named-institutions-v1
Museum collections
Other museums
Scroll horizontally if needed →
| Status | Credit line | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| reported | credit line unknown | FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand (French regional public collection) |
| reported | credit line unknown | FRAC Haute-Normandie |
| reported | credit line unknown | Artothèque de Caen |
| reported | credit line unknown | Domaine de Chamarande |
| reported | credit line unknown | École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris (ENSBA) |
| reported | credit line unknown | Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, Florence |
Tier 1 museums
Centre Pompidou / Musée national d'art moderne, Paris
Note
Listed in Almine Rech's and Night Gallery's public collections lists and in Phillips catalogue copy (Nov 2024). No Pompidou collection record retrieved; acquisition date and route unknown.
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 1
Tier 2 museums
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
- Note
- Cited by Almine Rech, Night Gallery, ICA Miami and Phillips; LACMA collection page not retrieved.
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
Dallas Museum of Art
- Note
- Wikipedia states works were acquired in 2021; also on gallery lists. Museum record not retrieved.
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
- Note
- Acquisition reported for 2021; ICA Miami also gave her a solo exhibition in 2023 — holding and exhibition are distinct facts.
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
Albertina Museum, Vienna
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
View 5 more records
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
Tel Aviv Museum of Art
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar
- Note
- Also presenting 'Weaving Waters, Weaving Gestures' in 2026.
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
macLYON (Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon)
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
Yuz Museum, Shanghai
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 2
Tier 3 museums
Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio
Note
Wikipedia states the 2021 presentation comprised works to be donated to inaugurate the museum's Scantland Collection — a donor route on that account rather than a museum purchase; museum record not retrieved.
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 3
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 3
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 3
Museo Madre, Naples
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 3
Kistefos Museum, Norway
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 3
Collection Lambert, Avignon
- Status
- reported
- Credit line
- credit line unknown
- Institution tier
- 3
Collections caveat
All museum holdings above derive from gallery/institution biography lists, auction-house cataloguing and Wikipedia rather than retrieved museum collection records. No acquisition credit line was retrieved for any holding and no individual museum object page was opened in this research. A credit line not retrieved is unknown — not evidence that none is published, and not evidence of a gift route.
Private foundations not museums
- Pinault Collection / Bourse de Commerce, Paris and Venice
- The Brant Foundation, New York
- Rema Hort Mann Foundation, New York
- Emerige Collection, Paris
- Fondation Colas, Paris
- Agnès b. Collection, Paris
- Leuwen Foundation, Belgium
- Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas (exhibited)
Awards and recognition
- Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, French Ministry of Culture, May 2022
- Prix Les Femmes en Or, 2014
- Prix Marin, 2013
- Prix Yishu 8, 2012
- Prix SJ Berwin, ENSBA Paris, 2011
- Prix Jeune Créateur, 2009
Career & Biography
Research updated
- Honours
- Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2022)
Identity
- Gender
- Female
- Full name
- Claire Tabouret
- Birth year
- 1981
- Birthplace
- Pertuis, Provence, France
- Prior base
- Los Angeles, CA (from 2015)
- Nationality
- French
Current base
France/Paris — Almine Rech lists her as living and working between Los Angeles and France, while Artnet News (Dec 2025) reported she 'recently returned to France after a decade in Los Angeles'
Education
Scroll horizontally if needed →
| Note | Year | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| Graduated 2006 | 2006 | École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris |
| Exchange year | 2005 | The Cooper Union School of Art, New York |
Career timeline
Event
Post-graduation Paris years; early critical attention for landscape painting before the shift to the figure; sequence of French prizes (Prix Jeune Créateur 2009, Prix SJ Berwin 2011 at ENSBA, Prix Yishu 8 2012)
- Period
- 2006-2012
Event
Prix Marin (2013), Prix Les Femmes en Or (2014); 'Les Débutantes' group-portrait canvases of costumed children begin — the body of work that later drove the auction market
- Period
- 2013-2014
- Event
- Relocates to Los Angeles; begins the ongoing 'Makeup' series of girls and young women with cosmetics smeared across their faces
- Period
- 2015
Event
Two-person exhibition with Yoko Ono, 'One Day I Broke a Mirror', Villa Medici / Académie de France, Rome; 'The Dance of Icarus', Yuz Museum, Shanghai (44 paintings); first in-situ public commission, the fresco 'Les Enfants de la Chapelle', Chapelle du Château de Fabrègues, Provence, commissioned by designer Pierre Yovanovitch
- Period
- 2017
Event
Museum solos at Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen ('La Ronde') and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art; 'Baigneuse Assise' at Musée Picasso, Paris; Columbus Museum of Art presentation tied to the inauguration of the museum's Scantland Collection; auction record set twice in 2021
- Period
- 2020-2021
View 4 more records
Event
'I am spacious, singing flesh', Palazzo Cavanis, collateral event of the 59th Venice Biennale; appointed Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture (May 2022)
- Period
- 2022
Event
'Au Bois d'Amour', ICA Miami; 'Immortelle', MO.CO Montpellier; included in the Holy See Pavilion 'With My Eyes' at the 60th Venice Biennale (2024, Giudecca women's detention centre); 'L'éloquence des larmes', Château La Coste
- Period
- 2023-2024
Event
Selected from more than 100 submissions to design six new stained-glass windows for the south aisle of Notre-Dame de Paris; announced by the Élysée and the Archbishop of Paris on 18 December 2024; fabrication with Atelier Simon-Marq, Reims
- Period
- December 2024
Event
'Entre la mémoire et l'oubli / Between Memory and Oblivion', Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes; 'D'un seul souffle / In a Single Breath', Grand Palais, Paris (opened 18 Dec 2025 with the full-scale Notre-Dame maquettes); 'Weaving Waters, Weaving Gestures', Museum Voorlinden; 'Les Créatures', Almine Rech Gstaad (10 Jul–3 Sep 2026, her fifth solo with the gallery). Notre-Dame glazing: removal of the existing 1864 Gérente/Viollet-le-Duc windows from June 2026, installation of the new windows around mid-October / end of 2026
- Period
- 2025-2026
Studio practice
Paintings typically begin with a fluorescent underlayer producing a chromatic tension between natural and artificial colour; loose, fast, layered acrylic brushwork, frequently on printed or patterned fabric supports. Works across painting, works on paper, sculpture, ceramic and now architectural glass. Architectural Digest toured her hand-painted Los Angeles home (Nov 2022).
Public engagement
Charitable auction of 'Les Débutantes' raising over €20,000 for French healthcare workers (2020); Holy See Pavilion project realised with women held at the Giudecca detention centre (2024); public defence of contemporary intervention in heritage monuments throughout the Notre-Dame dispute.
Influences and context
Contemporaries
The cohort of figurative painters that repriced sharply c.2019-2021 — Salman Toor, Nina Chanel Abney, Jonas Wood, Louise Bonnet, Danielle Mckinney (Night Gallery stablemate)
Stated influences
Monet's Orangerie Nymphéas cycle, cited as the catalyst for her love of painting; for the Notre-Dame glass she has acknowledged Chagall's 'lightness' and Matisse's use of colour
- Art historical dialogue
- Picasso (Musée Picasso Paris; 'The Echo of Picasso'), the Villa Medici dialogue with Yoko Ono, French figurative and history-painting traditions
Artistic Profile
Research updated
Style
Frontal, often group-composed figures set into saturated, near-monochromatic colour fields; washy layered acrylic with visible drag and loaded contour drawing; faces flattened toward masks with high-key highlights at lips and eyes; soft edges that let figure and ground bleed together; a fluorescent underpainting pushing an unnatural glow through muted overlays. Emotionally still, withholding and faintly ominous — sitters frequently have closed or averted eyes.
Evolution
- Phase
- 2006-2013
- Description
- Landscape-led practice; critical acclaim for landscapes before the gradual turn to the figure.
- Phase
- 2014-2017
Description
'Les Débutantes' and costumed-group canvases establish the signature idiom; first museum-scale projects (Yuz, Villa Medici) and first architectural commission.
- Phase
- 2018-2021
- Description
- Wrestlers, dancers, bathers and self-portraits; expansion into fabric supports; international market breakout.
- Phase
- 2022-2024
Description
Sculpture, ceramics and institutional collaborations (Venice collateral event, Holy See Pavilion, Château La Coste); increasingly civic subject matter.
- Phase
- 2025-2026
- Description
- Monumental stained glass and the Grand Palais presentation; a shift from the studio picture to permanent architectural work.
Influences
Monet's Orangerie cycle (cited by the artist as formative), Matisse's colour, Chagall's glass, Picasso as an explicit exhibition-level dialogue partner; broader affinity with the psychological figuration of her contemporaries.
Visual language
Colour is her primary medium, washed over supports of canvas, fabric, glass and ceramic in subtle shifts of hue; theatrical ambiguity; scale swings between intimate self-portrait and history-painting format.
Signature series
- Les Débutantes
- Les Déguisements
- Makeup (2015-ongoing)
- Wrestlers / Dancers (2018)
- Lockdown Self-portraits (2020)
- Paysages d'intérieurs
- Notre-Dame Pentecost windows (2024-2026)
Themes and subjects
- Childhood, disguise and costume ('Les Débutantes', 'Les Déguisements', children in traditional dress)
- Makeup as first painting — girls with cosmetics smeared across their faces (2015-ongoing)
- Memory, time and oblivion; collective and family portraiture
- Groups under pressure: wrestlers, dancers, migrants at sea, assemblies and processions
- Self-portraiture (2020 lockdown self-portraits; the 'Self-portrait with…' works now active at auction)
- Bathers, water and landscape as psychological setting
- Since 2024: sacred subject matter — Pentecost and unity across difference, for Notre-Dame
Movements and periods
Contemporary (2006-present); the international return to figuration of the 2010s-2020s; neo-expressionist handling within a French colourist lineage; history-painting scale applied to anonymous and domestic subjects.
Techniques and mediums
- Acrylic (and acrylic with ink/oil) on canvas and on printed or patterned fabric supports
- Fluorescent underlayer as a structural first step
- Works on paper in acrylic, ink and gouache
- Painting in reverse on plexiglass, then printed onto heavy paper, for the Notre-Dame maquettes
- Stained glass executed with Atelier Simon-Marq, Reims — a workshop that has previously realised projects with Chagall and Miró
- Ceramic, glass and sculpture; mural/fresco (Château de Fabrègues, 2017)
- Editions: screenprint with lithography and offset lithographs published by Perrotin and by Dilecta with the Fondation Pinault
Fingerprint verification
Confirmed
Contemporary / 2010-present bracket, neo-expressionist-inflected representational register, painting as dominant medium, alla prima wet-into-wet handling with soft edges and figure-ground compression, saturated palettes, tense and uncanny mood, and the collector themes of portraiture-as-presence, the body and the gaze — all corroborated by gallery and museum descriptions of loose expressive brushstrokes and a palette suspended between cosmetic and earth tones.
Corrections and disagreements
- DISAGREEMENT: the fingerprint narrative for one tier-1 exemplar reads the work as 'Contemporary Black figuration' in the lineage of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Chris Ofili. The literature does not support that framing at artist level: Tabouret is a French painter whose sitters derive from found and historical photographs, family images, self-portraits and communities she works with, and her masked/balaclava and 'Makeup' heads belong to her disguise-and-identity cycles. Treat the racial-identity reading as an image-level inference by the extraction model, not an artist attribute.
- MISSING: two technical facts central to her practice — (1) paintings are frequently made on printed or patterned FABRIC rather than primed canvas (the Phillips 2024 diptych is catalogued 'acrylic and fabric on canvas'); (2) she begins with a fluorescent/neon underlayer that glows through subsequent washes, the source of the artificial-versus-natural chromatic tension.
- MISSING: the fingerprint is painting-only. It omits works on paper, ceramics and sculpture and — most consequentially as of 2026 — architectural stained glass, in which she is executing a six-window cycle for Notre-Dame with Atelier Simon-Marq.
- SCALE: 'easel-scale' understates the range; signature works include museum-scale multi-panel canvases ('Les Débutantes (Dark Water)', 330 x 440 cm overall) and 20-foot window maquettes painted in reverse on plexiglass.
Critical Reception
Research updated
Critical reception
Summary
Substantial critical attention, weighted toward exhibition reviews, news coverage and institutional catalogue essays rather than independent academic scholarship. The Notre-Dame commission has made her one of the most publicly debated living French artists, with coverage far beyond the art press into general, religious and heritage media.
Named coverage
- ARTnews, 28 March 2026 — 'Claire Tabouret's Stained-Glass Windows for Notre-Dame Divide French Society, with a Legal Threat Looming' (Devorah Lauter). CLASSIFICATION CORRECTION: our provisional label was 'Artist Milestone'; the quoted text is a controversy and legal-risk report, not a milestone announcement. Classified here as a LEGAL/REPUTATIONAL EVENT with market-catalyst implications — the label and the evidence disagree, and the evidence wins.
- Artnet News, 18 December 2025 (Richard Whiddington) — report on 'In a Single Breath' at the Grand Palais
- The Art Newspaper (French edition), 20 May 2026 — court refusal to suspend installation
- Le Journal des Arts — analysis of the legal validation of the commission and its jurisprudential significance, by analogy with the Buren 'Colonnes' litigation settled by the Conseil d'État in 1992
- Artforum — coverage of her inclusion in the Holy See Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale (March 2024)
- The New York Times — 'What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries in December' (December 2023)
- ARTnews — Tabouret/Nathan Thelen booth named a best booth at FOG Design+Art (January 2023)
- Artsy — 'Market Brief' record coverage (May 2021) and '8 Artists Who Had Breakout Moments at March Auctions' (March 2021)
- Gazette Drouot — French market profile following the Notre-Dame announcement
- Architectural Digest — feature on her hand-painted Los Angeles home (November 2022)
- Observer, August 2026 — Aspen Art Fair coverage referencing her work
Positive threads
Praised for psychological charge, chromatic invention (the fluorescent underlayer producing tension between natural and artificial colour) and the ambiguity of her group portraits of costumed children, debutantes and bathers; framed by ICA Miami, MO.CO and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes as an artist of memory, identity and collective portraiture.
Contested threads
The Notre-Dame project has drawn unusually broad opposition from heritage specialists and some Catholic figures: that the Viollet-le-Duc-era windows belong to the cathedral's 19th-century restoration, that the designs are too figurative for the nave, that replacing windows spared by the 2019 fire contradicts the logic of the restoration, and that the roughly €4m cost is disproportionate. A petition against the project has gathered more than 328,000 signatures.
Scholarly attention
Institutional catalogues and curatorial essays (Yuz Museum, Rouen, MO.CO, ICA Miami, Rennes, Grand Palais) and inclusion in curated French survey projects such as Julie Crenn's 'Peindre, dit-elle'. No catalogue raisonné or independent academic monograph identified in the sources checked; press profiles are not scholarship.
Publications and media
Note
The heavy 2025-26 coverage volume is commission-driven rather than exhibition-review-driven; that is public salience, which is distinct from critical consolidation.
- Art press
- Artforum, ARTnews, Artnet News, Artsy, The Art Newspaper (FR), Le Journal des Arts, Gazette Drouot, Artprice, Observer
General and heritage press
National Catholic Register / EWTN, Catholic World Report and mainstream French media via the Notre-Dame dispute; Architectural Digest for the studio/home feature
Academic discourse and positioning
Placed within the international revival of figurative painting since the mid-2010s, with a specifically French line of descent (Matisse's colour, Chagall's glass, the tradition of the group tableau) and a museum-endorsed reading centred on memory, childhood, disguise and collective identity. The Notre-Dame commission uniquely positions her, among her cohort, inside the French national heritage debate and, per Le Journal des Arts, inside a live question of French heritage jurisprudence.
Gallery & Representation
Research updated
Fair presence
Regularly presented by her galleries at Art Basel, Art Basel Paris, Frieze London (Almine Rech sold 'Reception Hall' there in 2019), FIAC historically, FOG Design+Art (ARTnews named the Tabouret/Nathan Thelen booth one of the best booths, January 2023) and Aspen Art Fair (referenced in Observer coverage, August 2026).
Representation
Galleries
Almine Rech
Note
Principal international dealer; 'Les Créatures', Gstaad, 10 Jul – 3 Sep 2026, described as her fifth solo with the gallery; maintains her official biography, CV and collections list.
- Tier
- 1
- Since
- c. 2015
- Status
- current
- Location
- Paris, Brussels, London, New York, Shanghai, Gstaad
- Institution tier
- 2
Perrotin
- Note
- Solo exhibitions in Paris (2021), Tokyo (2020), Seoul (2020) and New York; publisher of her editions; listed on Perrotin's artist roster.
- Tier
- 1
- Since
- c. 2018
- Status
- current
- Location
- Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai
- Institution tier
- 2
Night Gallery
- Note
- US West Coast representation; solos including 'The Pull of the Sun' (2020) and 'Moonlight Shadow' (2025); maintains her CV and press pages.
- Tier
- 1
- Since
- c. 2017
- Status
- current
- Location
- Los Angeles
- Institution tier
- 3
Pace Gallery
Note
Included her in group presentations ('Tropic of Cancer', Palm Beach 2023; New York 2023) and has listed a 2023 work via Ocula. A group show and a listing do not establish representation, and she does not appear on the Pace artist roster in the sources checked.
- Tier
- 2
- Status
- secondary
- Location
- New York / Palm Beach
- Institution tier
- 1
Baldwin Contemporary
- Note
- Offers editions/prints on the secondary market.
- Tier
- 0
- Status
- secondary
- Location
- United Kingdom
Representation note
Three current dealers (Almine Rech / Perrotin / Night Gallery) covering Europe, Asia and the US West Coast. Primary prices are not published and works are allocated by the galleries; a substantial editions market runs principally through Perrotin and Dilecta.
Geographic reach
France (deep institutional and now civic presence via Notre-Dame), United States (LA base 2015–c.2025; reported museum holdings in Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, Columbus), Asia (Yuz Museum Shanghai; Perrotin Tokyo/Seoul/Hong Kong; Phillips Hong Kong evening-sale placements), continental Europe (Vienna, Naples, Wassenaar, Gstaad).
Representation history
French gallery and prize circuit (2009-2014) → Almine Rech from the mid-2010s → Night Gallery (Los Angeles) and Perrotin added as the market internationalised 2017-2020 → structure stable through 2026.
Sources & research notes
Egon’s artist research combines historical auction records, recent sales, institutional history, critical reception and gallery information. Researched auction records and auction highlights are identified separately.
Read prices with their work, sale date, currency and stated basis. Egon’s market assessments are distinct from reported auction results.
Reference: Egon, “Claire Tabouret: Market Intelligence & Investment Profile.”
Evidence & qualifications
These notes preserve the sources, status and qualifications recorded in the research.
Auction record: 'Les débutantes (bleu azur)' (2014) sold for $870,000 at Christie's New York day sale, breaking a record of £622,500 ($862,229) set by 'The Last Day' (2016) at Christie's London in March 2021.
Market · Documented · Event: 2021-05 (article dated 14 May 2021; sale that week) · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Artsy reports the premium-inclusive total against a $300,000 high estimate. The two 2021 figures are close, so aggregator pages citing '$863,000' as the record refer to the earlier London sale, not a distinct event.
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-market-record-breaking-auction-claire-tabouret-salman-toor'Les Débutantes (Dark Water)' (2016), 330 x 440 cm diptych, sold for HK$3,810,000 at Phillips Hong Kong Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, 25 November 2024 (estimate HK$2,800,000–3,800,000).
Market · Documented · Event: 2024-11-25 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Phillips lot page 'Sold For' figure, premium-inclusive; USD equivalence uses the house's own indicative conversion (~US$490k). Provenance stated as acquired directly from the artist.
https://www.phillips.com/detail/claire-tabouret/HK010424/4Secondary-market take-off dated to a Phillips Hong Kong sale of 'Les déguisements (Disguises)' (2015) at HK$3.5m (~US$451,600); Almine Rech sold 'Reception Hall' (2019) for $150,000 at Frieze London 2019.
Market · Reported · Event: 2021-03 (article); underlying sales 2019-2020 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Artsy editorial reporting; the primary-market figure is a single disclosed fair sale, not a gallery price list.
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-8-artists-breakout-moments-march-auctionsGazette Drouot described Tabouret as the art market's highest-priced living French artist and ninth among the most valued French artists in history, citing 'The Last Day' at $863,200.
Market · Reported · Event: c. December 2024 (references the 18 December Élysée announcement and her age as 43) · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Attributed ranking claim with undisclosed methodology; not independently verified and possibly superseded by later sales of other French artists.
https://www.gazette-drouot.com/en/artist/claire-tabouretMarket-wide context: the Artnet Price Database recorded an 8.8% drop in fine-art auction sales in H1 2025 versus H1 2024, with average price per lot at the lowest half-year level in a decade.
Market · Documented · Event: 2025 (H1) · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Market-wide statistic, not artist-specific.
https://news.artnet.com/market/mid-year-review-2025-2684554Tabouret's designs for six Notre-Dame windows were chosen from more than 100 submissions and shown at full scale at the Grand Palais in 'In a Single Breath'; fabrication is with Atelier Simon-Marq.
Institutional · Documented · Event: Designs selected December 2024; exhibition opened 18 December 2025 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Artnet News reporting. The Paris administrative court ruled in late November 2025 that installing new windows fell within the state's authority; Sites and Monuments said it would appeal.
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/claire-tabouret-notre-dame-windows-grand-palais-2732150The Paris administrative court refused to suspend installation of Tabouret's six windows; installation is expected at the end of 2026 in six chapels of the nave's south aisle.
Institutional · Documented · Event: 2026-05-20 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
A refusal to suspend at first instance; the challenge on the merits by Sites & Monuments remains and appeal routes exist — the commission is not litigation-free.
https://www.artnewspaper.fr/2026/05/20/notre-dame-de-paris-le-tribunal-administratif-refuse-de-suspendre-linstallation-des-six-vitraux-de-claire-tabouretWorks schedule: removal of the existing windows in June 2026 and installation of the new glazing around mid-October 2026, with the substantive appeal still to be examined (date not fixed); the six windows being replaced are the 1864 ornamental windows by Alfred Gérente executed under Viollet-le-Duc.
Institutional · Reported · Event: 2026-05-24 (article); works June–October 2026 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Secondary French art-news account; the schedule is provisional.
https://www.baratin.art/2026/05/24/notre-dame-de-paris-la-justice-valide-linstallation-des-vitraux-contemporains/Bernard Blistène, former director of the Centre Pompidou, chaired the selection committee and stated that Tabouret and Atelier Simon-Marq were working intensively at Reims, with installation expected by year-end.
Institutional · Reported · Event: 2026-03-28 (French translation of the ARTnews report) · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Hosted on the website of Sites & Monuments, the association opposing the project — a partisan host reproducing the ARTnews article; the quoted statement is attributable to Blistène via ARTnews.
https://www.sitesetmonuments.org/les-vitraux-de-claire-tabouret-pour-notre-dame-divisent-la-societe-francaise-sur-fond-de-menaceMuseum holdings including LACMA, ICA Miami, PAMM, Dallas Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, Montreal MFA, Centre Pompidou, Voorlinden and Yuz Museum.
Institutional · Reported · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Gallery-published collections list, corroborated by ICA Miami's own exhibition page and Night Gallery's CV. No museum object record or credit line retrieved for any holding; acquisition dates and routes unknown.
https://www.alminerech.com/artists/429-claire-tabouretWorks were acquired by ICA Miami and the Dallas Museum of Art in 2021; the 2021 Columbus Museum of Art presentation consisted of works to be donated to inaugurate the museum's Scantland Collection.
Institutional · Reported · Event: 2021 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Tertiary source citing press reports; the Columbus account indicates a donor gift route rather than curatorial purchase, and no museum credit line was retrieved to confirm either case.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_TabouretAppointed a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture.
Institutional · Reported · Event: 2022-05-11 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Gallery press-listing page; a state honour, not a collection holding.
https://www.nightgallery.ca/artists/claire-tabouret/newsICA Miami states her work has been acquired by LACMA, ICA Miami, PAMM and the Dallas Museum of Art, and lists her museum solo and group exhibition history.
Institutional · Reported · Event: 2023 (exhibition page) · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Institutional exhibition page reproducing a biography; corroborates the gallery list but is not a collection record with a credit line.
https://icamiami.org/exhibition/claire-tabouret-au-bois-damour/ARTnews reported that Tabouret's Notre-Dame windows divide French society with a legal threat looming, and that a proposed suit could prevent installation; the Grand Palais display was ending that weekend.
Critical · Reported · Event: 2026-03-28 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Headline and summary supplied in the EGON news record and corroborated by the French translation hosted by Sites & Monuments; the ARTnews page itself was not opened in this research. Later events (court refusal to suspend, 20 May 2026) partly resolve the threat described. This is a controversy/legal event, not an 'Artist Milestone'.
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/claire-tabouret-notre-dame-windows-controversy-1234779222/Opposition scale and arguments: heritage and Catholic objections, a petition exceeding 328,000 signatures, and criticism of the roughly €4m (~$4.7m) cost.
Critical · Documented · Event: 2025-12-18 (petition figure as of that date) · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
The cost figure is from Catholic World Report's May 2026 account; petition totals change over time.
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/claire-tabouret-notre-dame-windows-grand-palais-2732150Artforum covered her inclusion in the Vatican pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale; the New York Times listed her among shows to see in NYC galleries in December 2023; ARTnews named her FOG Design+Art booth one of the best (January 2023).
Critical · Reported · Event: 2023-01 to 2024-03 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Gallery press-listing page summarising third-party coverage; the underlying Artforum and NYT items were not opened.
https://www.nightgallery.ca/artists/claire-tabouret/newsFrench legal commentary frames the Notre-Dame windows litigation as clarifying heritage jurisprudence, by analogy with the Conseil d'État's 1992 validation of Buren's Palais-Royal columns, and anticipated that the works authorisation would be delivered in spring 2026 and contested.
Critical · Reported · Event: c. late 2025 · Source retrieved: 2026-09-20
Analytical commentary; the anticipated spring 2026 authorisation and challenge subsequently occurred (permit posted 20 April 2026, appeal filed, suspension refused 20 May 2026).
https://www.lejournaldesarts.fr/actualites/la-justice-valide-le-marche-des-vitraux-de-notre-dame-180548
Research bibliography · 28 sources
Sources recorded for this artist’s research. This bibliography does not assign every source to an individual claim.
- Claire Tabouret's Art For Sale, Exhibitions & Biography | Ocula
- Claire Tabouret: Artist Overview - Almine Rech
- Claire Tabouret Biography (PDF) - Almine Rech
- Claire Tabouret CV - Night Gallery
- Claire Tabouret News - Night Gallery
- Claire Tabouret - Moonlight Shadow - Night Gallery Viewing Room
- Claire Tabouret - Artist - Perrotin
- Artist Resources - Claire Tabouret - Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
- Claire Tabouret: Au Bois d'Amour - ICA Miami
- Claire Tabouret - Wikipedia
- Claire Tabouret's Controversial Window Designs for Notre-Dame Go on View - Artnet News
- Claire Tabouret's Stained-Glass Windows for Notre-Dame Divide French Society - ARTnews
- Notre-Dame de Paris: le tribunal administratif refuse de suspendre l'installation des six vitraux de Claire Tabouret - The Art Newspaper (FR)
- Notre-Dame de Paris: la justice valide l'installation des vitraux contemporains - Baratin
- La justice valide le marché des vitraux de Notre-Dame - Le Journal des Arts
- Les vitraux de Claire Tabouret pour Notre-Dame divisent la société française (French translation of ARTnews) - Sites & Monuments
- Notre Dame Cathedral's stained-glass dispute enters new legal phase - Catholic World Report
- Notre Dame Stained-Glass Dispute Enters New Legal Phase - National Catholic Register
- Polémique autour des vitraux de Claire Tabouret à Notre-Dame - Artprice
- Market Brief: Record-Breaking Auction Results for Claire Tabouret, Salman Toor, and Others - Artsy
- 8 Artists Who Had Breakout Moments at March Auctions - Artsy
- Claire Tabouret, Les Débutantes (Dark Water) - Phillips Hong Kong, 25 November 2024, Lot 4
- Claire Tabouret - Artnet artist page
- Introducing the Intelligence Report: The Mid-Year Report 2025 - Artnet News
- Claire Tabouret | 234 Artworks at Auction - MutualArt
- Claire Tabouret Sold at Auction Prices - Invaluable
- Claire Tabouret (née en 1981) Works, ratings, prices - Gazette Drouot
- Claire Tabouret - CV | Artsy
Research updates by section
These dates show when Egon’s research sections were updated. Source retrieval dates, where supplied above, refer to individual evidence notes.
Ranking updated . Research sections follow their own update dates.
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