Le Musée caché 2023
Exposition de photographies en plein air
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!
Paintings
The Camille Claudel Museum is home to around 300 paintings. Ancient painting is represented by a small number of objects from different schools, which have been added to the collections through donations received by the museum.
Some 18th century paintings from Alfred Boucher’s collection are remarkable, such as Le Serpent d’airain (The brazen serpent) by Corrado Giaquinto, Tête de vieillard by Noël Hallé or La Jeunesse de Turenne by Jean-Baptiste Le Prince. The Portrait of Claude Bouthillier de Chavigny (around 1643) and Le Livon by Joseph Vernet (1764) were acquired for their connections with the history of Nogent-sur-Seine and its surroundings.
The majority of the paintings date from the 19th or early 20th century. There are coherent sets of exhibits, such as the paintings by Léonce Vaÿsse donated by the artist, the paintings by Alfred Boucher acquired in conjunction with his sculptures and those by René Demeurisse donated by his daughter. Finally, the magnificent Emile Boeswillwald collection is a testimony to the roots of this family of architects and artists in Nogent, who owned a house in the commune. They mainly feature portraits and still life works.
Archaeological remains
At the beginning of the 20th century, collectors were captivated by archaeological remains, although they were usually nothing more than objects of curiosity. When the museum opened in Nogent-sur-Seine, several donors contributed a variety of artefacts to the collection, some of which disappeared during the Second World War. In 1962, André Lemoine founded the Groupe Archéologique du Nogentais (the Nogent Archaeological Group). This was a pivotal period for the emergence of archaeology as a scientific discipline and the excavations carried out by the GAN took advantage of the latest techniques, notably through aerial surveys. To preserve the discovered furniture, the GAN was granted a room in the former museum, which was closed to the public at the time. In return, they agreed to assist in the reopening of the museum, which finally took place in 1974. In 1978, a young archaeologist, Jacques Piette, was appointed curator. He undertook extensive excavations in the Nogent area up until the 1990s, and made substantial contributions to the museum’s collections. Approximately 9,000 artifacts or collections of artifacts are now preserved in the Camille Claudel Museum. Some remarkable sites include the tombs and dwellings at Les Grèves de Frécul (Neolithic), the funerary complex at Barbuise-La Saulsotte (Final Bronze Age), the Gallic sanctuary at La Villeneuve-au-Châtelot (Iron Age) and the pottery workshops excavated in the same commune (Gallo-Roman period).
Domains
Ceramics
When it was created, the museum in Nogent-sur-Seine had a very extensive collection of ceramics, which included donations from Madame Boucher and hundreds of vases and sculptures in biscuit porcelain donated by the “Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres” porcelain factory. Unfortunately, most of these objects were lost when the museum was looted during the Second World War.
The vases are now kept in storage, with the exception of the spectacular Ronde des enfants by Dalou. A number of porcelain biscuits and stoneware works can also be admired in the rooms, an exhibition that has been updated by acquisitions and new donations. The exhibition features prestigious works in which the Manufacture de Sèvres sought to illustrate its technical expertise (Les Ondines by Alfred Boucher, Le Char de Diane and Le Char de Minerve by Emmanuel Fremiet), as well as the unrivalled stoneware edition of Camille Claudel’s La Valse (The Waltz) by the “Manufacture Emile Muller” ceramic factory.
La Valse
La Valse
Emile Muller no14
La Valse (The Waltz) is arguably Camille Claudel’s most famous work. It was conceived between 1889 and 1893 and coincides with a period of intense production and the artist’s passionate relationship with Auguste Rodin.
In 1892, Claudel applied to the State for a marble commission, but the Beaux-Arts inspector refused the first version that featured dancers who were completely naked. To accommodate his expectations, the artist transformed the work by adding draperies, but the transition to marble was unsuccessful.
She then reworked the group and proposed a third version, with fewer draperies, smaller dimensions, and produced in several materials. It is examples of this third version that are presented in the Camille Claudel Museum. Only one of these examples in flamed stoneware has presently been located.
In the 19th century, the waltz was the couple’s dance by excellence and ballroom dancing spread throughout society. However, Claudel was not interested in recounting anecdotes or passing trends. The partial nudity of the dancers removes them from any temporal context and draws them towards a sense of universality. In this respect, the artist adheres to the symbolist trend. The swirling movement of the waltzers and the couple’s embrace embody the concept of a sensual dance. The diagonal of the bodies underlines imbalance, and the skirt accentuates the spiralling movement of the figures. In this way, the next step is already being suggested: The artist thus shows how swiftly the waltz unfolds, drawing the couple into a whirlwind that never seems to stop. With The Waltz, Camille Claudel won the appreciation of many of her contemporaries: “Only an elevated and open mind could have conceived this embodiment of what cannot be seen”, wrote Léon Daudet.
Camille Claudel
After fading into oblivion, Camille Claudel is now recognised as one of the great artists of her time.
She was born in 1864 in the Aisne region of France into a middle-class family and began modelling clay at a very young age, as a self-taught artist. The sculptor Alfred Boucher spotted her talent in Nogent-sur-Seine and became her first teacher. When he left for Italy, he entrusted her to a friend, Auguste Rodin. The young girl promptly joined the master’s studio and for ten years, the two sculptors shared their lives and studios, exchanging ideas, models and influences. Camille Claudel then affirmed her unique style, created a number of virtuoso works and became increasingly famous. After their separation, hurt by the constant comparison of her work with Rodin’s, she asserted her independence as an artist by completely redefining her inspiration. In the midst of mastering her art, Camille Claudel’s creativity was nevertheless thwarted by delusions of persecution. She barricaded herself in, destroyed her works and was eventually committed to a mental institution at the request of her family for the remainder of her life in 1943.
Alfred Boucher
Alfred Boucher was born in 1850 in the village of Bouy-sur-Orvin, approximately ten kilometres from Nogent-sur-Seine. His family moved to this last town in 1859, when Jules Boucher became a gardener for the sculptor Marius Ramus. The young boy discovered sculpture at a very early age and manifested a talent that was encouraged by his mentor. He involved him in creating the decor for the theatre in Nogent-sur-Seine: the young Boucher created a Crayfish fisherman (in the lobby room, a work that has disappeared) and part of the grotesque masks that adorn the façade. Ramus introduced his young apprentice to another sculptor from Nogent, Paul Dubois, who helped him to obtain a scholarship to enter the Beaux-Arts de Paris at the end of 1871. As a student of Augustin Dumont and Paul Dubois, he competed for the Prix de Rome from 1875 to 1879, with his best award being the second grand prize (Jason and the Golden Fleece, 1876). However, he spent a long time studying in Rome, funded by Paul Dubois (1877-1878). During his school years, he met the young Camille Claudel in Nogent-sur-Seine and became her first teacher.
Alfred Boucher exhibited his works at the Salon des Artistes Français from 1874 onwards and they were regularly acquired by the State. A string of successes made him a household name: Eve après la faute (Eve after the fall) (2nd class medal, 1878), Vénus Astarté (classification outside the competition, 1880), La Piété filiale (Grand Prix du Salon, 1881). This last group portrays an episode from Roman history in which the elderly Cimon, imprisoned and condemned to die of hunger, is saved by his daughter who breastfeeds him. The State commissioned a bronze sculpture of the group from the artist, which was his first public commission and his first monumental bronze sculpture. Through the efforts of Jean Casimir-Périer, then a member of parliament for the constituency, the sculpture was awarded to the town of Nogent-sur-Seine and erected between the two bridges over the Seine in 1886. The Grand Prix du Salon also helped the sculptor obtain a grant to finance another stay in Florence, Italy, from 1882 to 1884.
Back in France, Alfred Boucher conceived one of his most modern works, Au But (The finishing line), a group with spectacular momentum that the artist managed to create (1886). A few years later, he continued his work on the male nude depicted in action with the colossal figure of A la Terre (To Earth) (1890), whose pose is directly inspired by ancient sculpture, but modernised by his depiction as a digger. These two works were acquired by the State for the Luxembourg Gardens (bronze sculpture of Au But, now lost) and the Palais Galliera in Paris (marble sculpture of A la Terre). However, his greatest success was with female nudes. The sensual and elegant marble sculptures combine beautifully idealised bodies with a gentle naturalism that brings them to life. Often, areas left untouched or the folds of drapes highlight carefully polished skin tones. The large marble sculptures of the Salon were acquired by the State: Le Repos (1892) and Volubilis (1897) for the Luxembourg Museum, La Pensée (1907) exhibited at the Petit Palais Museum of fine arts in Paris. Countless smaller reproductions of these works were then produced for private customers in various sizes, in marble, bronze and stoneware.
The artist’s highly official career also afforded him numerous public commissions: Monument aux Enfants de l’Aube (Troyes, 1888), Monument to Eugène Flachat (Paris, 1897), L’Inspiration for the façade of the Grand Palais (1900), Monument to Auguste Burdeau (Lyon, 1903), Monument to doctor Ollier (Lyon and Les Vans, 1904)... Private individuals commissioned funerary monuments from him, the most remarkable of which are the allegories on the tomb of Ferdinand Barbedienne (Père Lachaise cemetery, 1894), the mausoleum of the Hériot family (La Boissière-École cemetery, 1901), the Sassot tomb (Nogent-sur-Seine cemetery, 1907), and the tomb of André Laval (Passy cemetery, 1913). He used his mastery of the female nude, both draped and undraped, to create allegories of pain, memory and posterity. After the First World War, his activity diminished and focused on war memorials. He created them by means of the innovative technique using quick-setting cement, for the municipalities to which he was associated: Nogent-sur-Seine, Bouy-sur-Orvin, Aix-les-Bains, where he had been living and working back and forth with Paris since 1885, and, not far from there, La Tour-du-Pin. He also took up painting again, which he had abandoned since the 1880s, producing hundreds of paintings, mainly landscapes and portraits.
Alfred Boucher died on the 17th of August 1934 and was buried in the cemetery of Nogent-sur-Seine, in the grave he had sculpted for his wife in 1913.
La sculpture dans l'espace public
Durant la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle, dans un contexte économique favorable, des travaux d’urbanisation de grande ampleur ont été entrepris en France. Les villes ont été agrandies, embellies et parées de nouveaux bâtiments.
Des fonds publics et privés étaient réunis pour commander aux artistes des monuments sculptés et orner ces espaces. Cette prolifération a été tellement importante qu’on parle de statuomanie. Des groupes allégoriques ou des statues en, hommage aux grands hommes se dressaient sur les places, dans les parcs et sur les façades. Le choix des sujets participait à la diffusion des valeurs de la société libérale et bourgeoise de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle. Pour ce faire, les sculptures devaient être didactiques et le sujet compris de tous. Souvent, les décors sculptés des nouveaux bâtiments publics explicitaient leur fonction, comme Hippocrate et Hygie de Gabriel-Jules Thomas pour la faculté de Médecine de Paris ou L’Âge de pierre pour le Museum d’histoire naturelle.
Œuvres exposées dans cette salle
- HENRI CHAPU (1833-1891), Jeanne d’Arc à Domremy, 1870, plâtre, dépôt du Centre national des arts plastiques
- PAUL DUBOIS (1829-1905), Statue équestre de Jeanne d’Arc, 1889, modèle en plâtre de la statue érigée en 1896 par souscription, à l’initiative de l’Académie nationale de Reims, sur le parvis de la cathédrale de cette ville, don de Paul Dubois en 1902
- PAUL DUBOIS (1829-1905), Esquisse pour le monument à Jeanne d'Arc, avant 1889, cire, achat avec le soutien de la Direction régionale des affaires culturelles du Grand Est et de la Région Grand Est, des Amis du musée Camille Claudel et de Jean-Eudes Maccagno en 2019
- PAUL DUBOIS (1829-1905), Études pour la tête de Jeanne d’Arc, avant 1889, plâtre, don de Paul Dubois en 1902
- PAUL DUBOIS (1829-1905), Le Souvenir ou L’Alsace et la Lorraine, 1899-1902, premier modèle en plâtre du groupe conçu comme une partie du Monument du génie de la France commandé par l’État. Seule partie du monument réalisée, le groupe a été érigé dans sa version définitive en 1910, place Saint-Jean, à Nancy (actuelle place André Maginot), don de Paul Dubois en 1902
- PAUL DUBOIS (1829-1905), Sept esquisses pour Le Souvenir ou L’Alsace et la Lorraine, avant 1899, cire noire, textile, papier, base en bois, dépôts du musée d’Art et d’Archéologie de Troyes.
- GABRIEL-JULES THOMAS (1824-1905), L’Âge de pierre ou Homme combattant un serpent, 1893, modèle en plâtre du groupe en bronze commandé par l’État pour la galerie de zoologie du Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Paris, don de madame Thomas en 1905
- PAUL DUBOIS (1829-1905), Narcisse, 1862, modèle en plâtre avec marques de mise aux points, don de Henriette Dubois en 1905
- RAOUL LARCHE (1860¬-1912), Jeanne d’Arc guerrière, avant 1909, modèle en plâtre de la statue commandée pour l’église de La Madeleine à Paris, transfert de propriété par la Ville de Coubron en 2021
- ALFRED BOUCHER (1850-1934), L’Inspiration, avant 1900, modèle en plâtre en réduction du groupe monumental en pierre érigé en façade du Grand Palais, édifice construit à Paris pour l’Exposition universelle de 1900, don d’Alfred Boucher avant 1903
- GABRIEL-JULES THOMAS (1824-1905), Hippocrate et Hygie, 1889, modèle en plâtre du groupe en marbre commandé par l’État pour le vestibule de l’Académie de médecine à Paris, don de madame Thomas en 1905
- ALFRED BOUCHER (1850-1934), Monument du docteur Panas, avant 1905, modèle en plâtre avec marques de mise aux points, traduit en marbre pour le monument érigé à l’Hôtel-Dieu de Paris en 1905, en reconnaissance du service ophtalmologique créé par Photinos Panas (1832-1903), don d’Alfred Boucher en 1905
- ALFRED BOUCHER (1850-1934), Monument du docteur Ollier, avant 1904, modèle en plâtre des deux monuments en bronze élevés grâce à une souscription internationale à Lyon en 1904 et aux Vans en 1905, en hommage au docteur Léopold Ollier (1830-1900) considéré comme le fondateur de la chirurgie orthopédique moderne, don d’Alfred Boucher en 1905
