Musée Camille Claudel — Attraction in Nogent-sur-Seine

I am offended on Claudel's behalf. I have always loved her work. It stands out whenever you enter a room. When I heard that they had opened a Camille Claudel museum I made the trek down from Paris. (I had already visited the Claudel room in the Rodin museum which is well worth visiting.) This place has perpetrated the same indignity on her in death that she suffered in life. Now that she is "known" and popular they slapped her name on the building and filled it primarily with works by her MALE contemporaries. The very first room you enter goes into detail on four of the male sculptors who lived in the town. Her portrait is not present there. She is practically an afterthought in the museum. I understand that not much of her work survives, but this is insulting. They should have made a smaller museum and found a way to highlight her more. Or, at the very least, they could have made an effort to incorporate more work by similarly disadvantaged female artists. By the way, there is a spider web on the back of the Sakuntala in the front...

An excellent museum and memory to an artist that time forgot. It's situated in Nogent-sur-Seine which is a lovely town.

Known, as most women of her époque were, only through their men, she was a great sculptor in her own right.

She was a student of Rodin and eventually his lover, muse and coworker and unfortunately finished her days enclosed in a hospital for mental illness.

Her work stands the test of time and is very interesting as it comes from the woman's perspective and she did some great pieces. This museum sketches her life through her contemporaries including Rodin but also some others who also came or worked in her town, notably Alfred Boucher. The space is new, well run, and the collection is well put together using many different media as well as statues.

The gift shop needs a little work but the staff were great and photography is allowed.

Make the effort to see this and mark her memory. She...

Une première visite dans ce sublime musée m'a donné envie de revenir avec mes petites filles et de participer à un atelier familial de sculpture. Avec l'animatrice, nous nous sommes arrêtées devant les oeuvres illustrant le propos de l'atelier "ça caille", ou en d'autres termes la traduction du vêtement dans la sculpture et toutes les questions qui se rapportent au vêtement, au drapé. A travers ce parcours, nous avons beaucoup appris sur les techniques, les matières, le corps dans l'histoire de la sculpture et de l'art... Nous sommes ensuite passées à la pratique. L'animatrice nous a donné un morceau d'argile en nous demandant de modeler un corps puis de traduire les vêtements...Oups !! Je n'avais jamais touché une motte de terre, et avec mon niveau en dessin de bonhomme patate, je pressentais la catastrophe artistique. Mes petites filles ont démarré de suite et, avec les indications données par notre guide au fil de la séance, ni trop, ni trop peu, avec un peu d'aide, nous sommes parvenues à atteindre l'objectif. Ma petite fille aînée a représenté une femme allongée, la plus jeune une femme assise et moi une femme debout. Je ne serai jamais Camille Claudel, c'est certain, mais je suis étonnée et fière de "mon oeuvre". Un grand merci à notre animatrice pour cette journée si enrichissante. Aucun doute, nous reviendrons en famille pour un...