Since its rediscovery in the 1980s, Camille Claudel has inspired major monographic exhibitions. Her fame is now such that it might mistakenly suggest she was the only female sculptor of her time. However, around 1900, many others followed the same path as her and, despite the obstacles related to their status as women, distinguished themselves in the field of sculpture.

In autumn 2025, these prominent sculptresses will emerge from the shadows! An exhibition co-produced by the Camille Claudel Museum, the Fine Arts Museum of Tours, and the Pont-Aven Museum brings together the creations of around twenty of them: Charlotte Besnard, Marie Cazin, Madeleine Jouvray, as well as Jessie Lipscomb, Agnès de Frumerie, Anna Bass, Jane Poupelet, and many others. French or foreign, often the daughters or wives of artists, they were the studio companions, friends, or sometimes rivals of Camille Claudel. Some preceded her, while others succeeded her.

What artistic training did women have access to at this turn of the 20th century? What strategies did sculptresses deploy to carve out a place for themselves in this male-dominated environment? What relationships did Camille Claudel maintain with her contemporaries? And what roles did these artists occupy within Auguste Rodin's studio? These are some of the questions illuminated by the exhibition.

Photo: Laure Coutan-Montorgueil in her studio, around 1910, photograph © private collection

Celebrating the 160^th anniversary of Camille Claudel's birth, the Camille Claudel honours the sculptor through one of her major works: Sakountala. 

The exhibition "Camille Claudel at Work: Sakountala" delves into the creation of this masterpiece with a tumultuous history. Inspired by Hindu mythology, the artist's very first monumental sculpture experienced both success and controversy before falling into oblivion.
Gathering nearly 100 objects, the exhibition revisits the creative process of Sakountala, its reception history, its literary inspiration, and the many variations Camille Claudel proposed at the end of her career.

With exceptional loans from the Rodin Museum, the National Library of France, and the Orsay Museum has been labeled "Exhibition of National Interest" by the French Ministry of Culture.

Affiche : Agence Drôles d'oiseaux

To celebrate the acquisition of six letters written by Camille Claudel to Eugène Blot, the museum presented some fifteen of the artist's letters in its permanent collections. Exhibited alongside the sculptures, these writings shed light on the genesis and reception of the works, and highlight Camille Claudel's supporters: publisher Eugène Blot, sculptor Auguste Rodin and art critics Mathias Morhardt and Gustave Geffroy. Beyond the valuable information these letters provided on the works, they embodied Camille Claudel, who shared her enthusiasms, doubts and torments with her correspondents.

Alfred Boucher, a renowned artist showered with honours and commissions in his day, is largely unknown today. The exhibition Alfred Boucher, de l'atelier au musée pays tribute to the sculptor who was Camille Claudel's first teacher, as well as a collector and philanthropist. The exhibition brings together some 130 works - sculptures, paintings, drawings and ceramics - that Alfred Boucher donated to the town of Nogent-sur-Seine at the dawn of the 20^th century, a collection taken from the museum's reserves and entirely restored for the occasion. Inviting visitors to immerse themselves in the intimacy of Boucher's studio, the scenography is freely inspired by the jumble that reigned there, known thanks to a series of stereoscopic photographs. 

Since September 2022, Nogent-sur-Seine school children have been participating in an ambitious artistic project with the Nature Association of Nogentais and photographer Philippe Brame.

Nature is the common theme of the artworks and archaeological objects "hidden" in the selected reserves by the students. During sessions at the museum and outdoors, they were able to observe, understand, write about, and photograph nature, whether real or represented.

From this project, an exhibition of photographs was born, combining the students' snapshots with the museum's artworks: to be visited throughout the summer!