In the Time of Camille Claudel, Being a Sculptor in Paris –
Temporary exhibition at the Camille Claudel Museum from September 13, 2025 to January 4, 2026.

“In the 1980s, Camille Claudel was reborn. Her tragic destiny and her work were pulled from oblivion thanks to the book by Anne Delbée, followed by the film by Bruno Nuytten, which revealed her to the general public under the features of Isabelle Adjani. This rediscovery coincided with the rising strength of the women’s cause, particularly in France with the creation of a Ministry for Women’s Rights in 1981.

In the 1880s, a century earlier, Camille Claudel (1864-1943), the older sister of the writer Paul Claudel, emerged on the artistic scene. At a time when women had to fight for their place, she established herself through her talent and determination but would experience a tormented history, both as a woman and as an artist.

It was in 1881 that she entered the Académie Colarossi and rented a studio with other female artists, training with great names in sculpture, first Alfred Boucher, then Auguste Rodin, whose student, muse, and lover she became, all while forging her own style. During her lifetime, her talent was recognized, her works exhibited and admired; she nevertheless remained in Rodin’s shadow, in a century that did not facilitate the emancipation of women. Confronted with financial difficulties, she would end up confined to a psychiatric asylum for 30 years, where she passed away in solitude and indifference.

‘My great desire, my ideal, is to put an idea into the forms that I draw from the clay! The idea is not enough for me; I want to clothe it in purple and crown it with gold.’
– Words of Camille Claudel collected by Henri Asselin (French man of letters, journalist, and art critic, born February 24, 1884, in Cologne and died June 22, 1978, in Paris)

Now an emblematic figure of feminism, her notoriety might give the impression that she was the only female sculptor of her time.
The exhibition “IN THE TIME OF CAMILLE CLAUDEL, BEING A SCULPTOR IN PARIS” proves the opposite. Co-produced by the Camille Claudel Museum in Nogent-sur-Seine, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours, and the Musée de Pont-Aven, it pays tribute not only to Camille Claudel but also to her contemporaries.

Bringing together nearly 90 artworks, it restores life to the artist’s female artistic circle and highlights these women who shared the same struggle and the same passion for sculpture, leaving behind a precious artistic legacy that is brought out of the shadows here: Charlotte Besnard, Marguerite Syamour, Agnès de Frumerie, Jane Poupelet, Marie Cazin, and others.

The SENDSIO teams managed the packaging, transport, and installation of the artworks for this sculptural exhibition.
With a major challenge: the movement of Marguerite Syamour’s “Sleeping Sappho,” a 1,200-kilogram marble loaned by the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Cambrai that had not been moved for 31 years.

Text by Patrick Baux, General Director of Sendsio