Group visits
The Camille Claudel Museum provides you with a team of professional tour guides trained in art history and the specifics of sculpture. Whether it's your first visit to the museum or you know the works like the back of your hand, our guided tours will help you discover the sculptures in the collection from different perspectives ! The Must-Sees
Camille Claudel
This tour places Camille Claudel's journey in its historical and biographical context, allowing visitors to discover the largest collection of the artist's works.
The Women of the Museum
Who are the women behind the museum's sculptures? Discover these women, some familiar, some less so: beloved mistress or abandoned lover, goddess, heroine…
The Techniques in Questions
From the choice of materials to the specialists involved in the project, this tour provides insight into the roles of the participants in the creation of a sculpture.
Customized Tours
To enjoy personalized tours on other themes, please contact the Public Services Department. Tours can be conducted in French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, or Russian.
Guided Tour of the Permanent Collections with a Camille Claudel Museum Guide
A team of professional guides and art historians will lead you through the galleries, highlighting the richness of the collections.
Duration : 1 hour 30 minutes
Group of up to 9 people :
- Group rate €110 + visitation fee €45 (excluding temporary exhibition periods)
- Group rate €110 + visitation fee €60 (during temporary exhibitions: 13 September 2025 – 12 January 2026)
Group of 10 to 25 people :
- Group rate €110 + visitation fee €4.50 per person (excluding temporary exhibition periods)
- Group rate €110 + visitation fee €6 per person (during temporary exhibitions: 13 September 2025 – 12 January 2026)
Tour with External Guide
Individuals wishing to speak during the tour must provide proof of their right to speak at the time of booking.
Groups must be equipped with headphones in order to benefit from this right to speak out loud.
Group of up to 9 people :
- Right to speak fee €25 + visiting fee €45 (excluding temporary exhibition periods)
- Right to speak fee €25 + visiting fee €60 (during temporary exhibitions: 13 September 2025 – 12 January 2026)
Group of 10 to 25 people :
- Right to speak fee €25 + visiting fee €4.50 / person (excluding temporary exhibition periods)
- Right to speak fee €25 + visiting fee €6/person (during temporary exhibitions: 13 September 2025 – 12 January 2026)
Audiophones
- Fee €30 (if the group does not have its own equipment, rental of audiophones is mandatory)
Self-guided tour group of 10 to 25 people :
- Visitation fee €4.50/person by reservation only (excluding temporary exhibition periods )
- Visitation fee €6/person by reservation only (during temporary exhibitions: 13 September 2025 – 12 January 2026)
Additional information
Reservation required by mail
for more information, call : +33 (0)3 25 24 76 34
Free parking spaces are available in the Fournier car park at 1 rue Paul Fournier or in the church parking lot in the city center.
Individual visits
Camille Claudel
This tour places Camille Claudel's journey in its historical and biographical context, allowing visitors to discover the largest collection of the artist's works.
Discovering the permanent collections
Why a Camille Claudel museum in Nogent-sur-Seine ? What does the proliferation of sculptures in public spaces mean ? What are the new forms of representation of the movement which symbolize the 19th century so well ? Placed in the context of the sculpted creation of his time, the figure of Camille Claudel clearly stands out.
Artistic movements in Belle Époque sculpture
The collections of the Camille Claudel museum bear witness to the eclecticism of sculpture between the last third of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Explore the different movements of this era, from neoclassicism to Art Nouveau, naturalism and symbolism.
Camille Claudel et Auguste Rodin
The works on the tour highlight the years of deep complicity and the artistic links between the two sculptors who lived a passionate love story.
Registration required:
- + 33 (0)3 25 24 76 34
- reservation@museecamilleclaudel.fr
Adults activities
What is there to do in Nogent-sur-Seine?
Why not take advantage of your visit to the Camille Claudel Museum to explore Nogent-sur-Seine and its surrounding areas?
Escapades in Nogent - from sculptures to landscapes
Follow this tour conceived by the Camille Claudel Museum and explore the monuments and landscapes of Nogent-sur-Seine, from the statues of the Saint-Laurent church to the statues in the museum, not forgetting the façade of the theatre and the large mills.
Stroll along the banks of the River Seine and exploration of île Olive (Olive Island)
By bike or on foot, for a stroll or a picnic, head for the countryside and discover the banks of the Seine and the 3 hectares of wooded grounds of the Olive Island.
Practical information: When the weather is favourable, the Tourist Office offers bicycles for hire.
Pavillon Henri IV
This 16th century timber-framed house is a listed building and one of the most picturesque sites in the commune. Legend has it that this hunting lodge was once home to the love affair between Henri IV and Gabrielle d’Estrées. Today it has been transformed into an exhibition space, and during the summer months, it hosts the creative works of local associations and artists.
Discovery of the EDF nuclear power plant
When you step through the doors of the Nogent-sur-Seine nuclear power plant, and especially the machine room and the simulator, you will learn more about how a power plant works.
Practical information: a host of activities are offered during the school holidays.
And in the surrounding area...
A journey through time at the Château de La Motte-Tilly
Head for the Age of Enlightenment! This elegant building, fully furnished with period furniture and surrounded by formal gardens, was built in 1754 for Abbé Terray, minister of King Louis XV. Now open to the public, this château will transport you back to the 18th century for the duration of your visit.
Practical information: picnics are permitted in the park.
Medieval town of Provins
During the 12th and 13th centuries, Provins is at the height of its fame thanks to the famous Trade Fairs of Champagne. In 2001, 800 years later, Provins has been inscribed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List and is nowadays a real showcase of medieval architecture: ramparts, donjon, churches, underground galleries… animated all year long with guided tours, medieval shows and great events to take you back to the Middle Ages!
Stroll through the botanical garden of Marnay-sur-Seine
The botanical garden of Marnay-sur-Seine is a fascinating living museum of plants and a magnificent conservatory of biodiversity. It invites you to stroll along a trail of some twenty themes: the path of evolution, the rose gardens, medicinal plants, condiment plants, the vegetable garden, the shaded garden, the conservatory garden, the ornamental garden, the living wall...
Practical information: Tables and chairs are available if you wish to bring your own lunch or snacks.
Stroll through the Champagne vineyards
Tour of wine presses and cellars, wine tasting sessions and opportunities to meet the winegrowers... The Camille Claudel Museum is less than twenty minutes from the Champagne vineyards. Five Champagne estates open their doors to visitors in the charming village of Villenauxe-la-Grande: an opportunity to unlock the secrets of one of the world’s most prestigious wines.
Visitors trails
Sculpture in middle-class homes
After the fashion of the mechanically reproduced prints popular during the 19th century, reproductions of sculptures abundantly adorned middle-class interiors. Reproductions were produced to suit all budgets (in bronze, patinated plaster, Sèvres bisque porcelain, carton-pierre, zinc plated in copper via galvanoplasty, etc.), as well as all tastes. Miniatures in different sizes were also made available.
The boom in the production of bronzes during the 19th century was made possible thanks to three innovations. Firstly, the device invented by Achille Collas, which allowed its users to mechanically reduce or increase the scale of models. Achille Collas was awarded a Grand Médaille d'Honneur for his invention at the 1855 Exposition Universelle of Paris. Secondly, progress made in the sand casting technique, which allowed for the mass reproduction of a given work. Thirdly, the establishment of contracts between sculptors and foundries, which protected the creators’ ownership rights and ensured them an income. The manufacturers’ success depended not only upon technical advances, but also their marketing talents and their discernment in the selection of artists and oeuvres likely to satisfy the dominant academic tastes of their middle-class clientele. No less than 153 manufacturers were present at the Exposition Universelle of 1889. Among this multitude, a few names stood out, with their boutiques resembling art galleries: Barbedienne, Susse Frères, Thiébaud Frères, Siot Decaux-Ville and Hébrard. Bronze reproductions were a hallmark of the 19th century, embodying the century’s dream: the marriage of art and industry, backed by the French state both for economic reasons and as a means of supporting France's image as a nation of the arts.
19th-century sculpture was marked by the manufacture of reduced scale reproductions. In the 1870s and 1880s, contemporary works became increasingly common in the manufacturers’ catalogues. Numerous artists created works destined specifically for industrial production. At the same time, monumental works commissioned for the public sphere, such as funereal sculptures, were added to the catalogues. This trend was illustrated, for example, by The Spinner of Bou-Saada created by Barrias for the tomb of the painter Guillaumet at the Montmartre cemetery.
Among the most fashionable subjects were historical themes, female nudes tinged with eroticism and the figures of children. Sculptors did not hesitate to place their talents at the service of the decorative arts, notably in the designing of vases (Cheret, Rodin, Desbois, Dalou, etc.) and spectacular centrepieces (Frémiet and Agathon Léonard).
Sculpture of Camille Claudel's time
The Nogent-sur-Seine collection stands out for its temporal coherence, presenting sculptures from approximately 1870 to 1910, a particularly splendid period for sculpture and especially rich starting in 1880 with the nascent stylistic transformation characterized by a search for expression and meaning.
The section “Sculpture at the time of Camille Claudel” considers how sculptors – attached to the subject and the body's representation, steeped in classical culture and technically impeccable – positioned themselves during this period of transformation, borrowing from various sensibilities according to the subject, or on the contrary limiting themselves to a constant, personal search for expressiveness and meaning.
What is the significance of this profusion of sculptures in the public sphere, commissioned by the triumphant French Republic or groups of citizens seeking to pay tribute to their “great men”? This sculpture of the street, the "people's museum", tells a story, instructs, moralizes and adorns. How are mythological subjects interpreted in the academic and symbolist milieus? What is the influence of the rediscovery of the Florentine Quattrocento? Given the confusion of styles present during this period, and the scientific studies in anatomy and morphology taught at the École des Beaux-Arts fine arts school, what canons of the nude female body were adopted? How did this young democracy present the image of “work”? What subjects best evoked this “movement” that so well symbolized the 19th century?
A projection room allows visitors to immerse themselves in the Paris and the Parisian art life of the late 19th century familiar to Camille Claudel.
One at once understands the extent to which, in this context, competition was fierce, especially for a young female sculptor, whose first obstacle was locating a school welcoming women, and then managing to stand out amongst the plethora of sculptors present at the annual Salon, affirming her originality and seeking understanding. While the evolutions in painting during this period – notably impressionism – are well known, those in sculpture are yet to be fully explored. Camille Claudel belongs to the movement initiated principally by Rodin. The contextualization of her creations is therefore all the more rich in meaning.
sculpture in middle-class homes
Museum of sculpture
By the quirks of fate, four sculptors, renowned during their lifetime, have resided in Nogent-sur-Seine: Marius Ramus (1805-1888), Paul Dubois (1829-1905), Alfred Boucher (1850-1934) and Camille Claudel (1864-1943). They maintained intergenerational professional relations and held each other in friendly esteem. The museum of Nogent-sur-Seine, created under the impetus of Alfred Boucher, today presents an important collection of sculptures by these four artists, further enriched by numerous works created by their compatriots.
At the height of his success, Alfred Boucher strove to found in Nogent-sur-Seine the museum that had been lacking during his own apprenticeship under Marius Ramus. This philanthropist drew largely from his own personal collection and solicited his friends and acquaintances, while the town acquired the so-called “Château” to house the new museum. The children of Marius Ramus and Paul Dubois also lent their support to the project.
The Dubois-Boucher Municipal Museum was inaugurated on 12 October 1902. On 21 May 1905, the sculpture gallery, housing primarily large-scale models destined for the public sphere, was in turn inaugurated, thanks to the generous contributions of Alfred Boucher’s friends and the widow of Paul Dubois. The museum was therefore capable of welcoming the full-scale model for the Joan of Arc equestrian statue by Paul Dubois the very day of the museum’s 1902 inauguration ceremony. The museum continued to strengthen its specificity: sculpture from 1870 to 1910. Studio collection donations contributed to the creation of a museum of sculpture and of sculptors. This particularity would be further reinforced by the coherent acquisition policy pursued between 1980 and 2013, peaking with the purchase of works by Camille Claudel from Reine-Marie Paris and Philippe Cressent in 2008. The same year, the town managed to purchase the only monumental marble work by the artist, thanks to the contributions of patrons and the Fonds du Patrimoine national heritage fund (attributed by the French Ministry of Culture).
The radical transformation of the municipal museum – involving the construction of a new 2,400-m2 building, as well as the renaming of the museum (the first in the world to be named after Camille Claudel) – has necessitated a reconsideration of its collection and the redesigning of its exhibition to put into perspective the oeuvre of Camille Claudel and examine the role she played in the artistic landscape of her period.
sculpture in Camille Claudel's time
Camille Claudel and Nogent-sur-Seine
It was in Nogent-sur-Seine that Camille Claudel’s lifetime calling as a sculptor first took shape. She was twelve when her father was named registrar of mortgages in the administrative capital of the Aube canton. Louis-Prosper Claudel would occupy this position from 1876 to 1879, three years that would leave their indelible mark on his eldest daughter. The young girl became fascinated by modelling.
In this pottery-making region, she found the clay she needed on-site. This activity became so important within the family home that the ever attentive father eventually decided to seek the advice of Alfred Boucher, awarded second prize in sculpture for the Prix de Rome bursary in 1876, most likely upon the artist’s return from Italy. Boucher regularly returned to Nogent to call on his parents. This meeting would prove decisive, with Alfred Boucher detecting the budding talent of the self-taught Camille Claudel. He set about teaching her the rudiments of sculpting, correcting and encouraging her and reinforcing her choices. He was convinced of her artistic qualities.
Alfred Boucher’s opinion undoubtedly played a central role in Louis-Prosper Claudel’s decision to send to Paris, in 1881, his wife, Louise Athanaïse Claudel, and their three children, Camille, Louise and Paul, so as to offer them a superior education. In Paris, Camille Claudel took courses at the Académie Colarossi, and shared a studio with young female English students. Alfred Boucher stopped by twice weekly to follow her progress, up until 1882 when a gold medal at the Salon des Artistes Français gave him the opportunity to pursue a study trip to Florence. But prior to departing, he convinced Auguste Rodin to take over for him. This choice was significant, for Alfred Boucher, who had orchestrated his defence during The Age of Bronze affair, considered Rodin the greatest sculptor of his time.
The acquisition in 2008 of the works by Camille Claudel collected by Reine-Marie Paris and Philippe Cressent, to enrich the museum created in Nogent-sur-Seine by Alfred Boucher back in 1902, can be seen as a second encounter between these two local artists.
1909-1943 : Period of confinement
Spells of delirious paranoia focusing on “Rodin’s band” influence her creative output, to the point of drying it up. She is confined to a mental hospital on 10 March 1913, where she will remain for the rest of her days.
Destructions
1911: Camille Claudel’s physical and mental health worsens, worrying her brother. She shuts herself in.
In a letter to Henriette Thierry (undated, circa 1912), she evokes her destructive tendencies:
“When I received your announcement, I was in such a state of anger that I took all of my wax models and threw them in the fire, it made quite a blaze and I warmed my feet in its glow, that’s what I do when something unpleasant happens to me, I take my hammer and smash up some chap […]
The large statue nearly met the same fate as its little wax sisters, for Henri’s death was followed a few days later by more bad news [...] And many more capital punishments were carried out soon after, with a pile of rubble accumulating in the middle of my studio, it's a veritable human sacrifice."
Correspondances, A. Rivière, B. Gaudichon, Paris 2008.
1913 : confinement
Camille Claudel is not informed of her father’s death on 3 March in Villeneuve-sur-Fère – the father who had ever shown his love for her and protected her. She would therefore not attend his funeral.
On 7 March, Doctor Michaux drafts the confinement certificate for Camille Claudel, who is now 48 years old.
On 10 March, she is confined at Ville-Evrard (in the Val-de-Marne). The procedure adopted is that of “voluntary placement”, as requested by her mother.
Montfavet
She is transferred to the Montdevergues asylum from 5-7 September 1914 due to the war. There she would remain until her death in 1943.
1929: Jessie Lipscomb and her husband visit Camille Claudel during a trip to Europe. This meeting is immortalized by a photograph.
Camille Claudel dies on 19 October 1943, at the age of seventy-eight. Her brother had last visited her on 21 September. She is first buried at the Montfavet cemetery in a temporary tomb, before being transferred to the communal grave.
Reconnaissance
In 1914, while Auguste Rodin is negotiating the establishment of his museum within the Hôtel Biron, on Rue de Varennes, Mathias Morhard requests that he set aside a room for Camille Claudel. Rodin approves the initiative, but Paul Claudel is categorically opposed. Rodin dies on 17 November. His funeral is held at the Villa des Brillants in Meudon, where he is buried.
Between 1934 and 1938, works by Camille Claudel are displayed at the Salon des Femmes Artistes Modernes (“Modern Women Artists Exhibition”).
In 1949, against all expectations, Paul Claudel requests that the Musée Rodin host a retrospective exhibition of his sister’s oeuvre. Cécile Goldsheinder and Paul Claudel work closely together, with the latter authoring the catalogue’s preface entitled “My Sister Camille”, in which he presents a study of her works and an intimate portrait of the artist.
In 1952, Paul Claudel makes an essential donation to the Musée Rodin: the first version of The Age of Maturity in plaster, the second in bronze, The Abandonment in marble and Clotho in plaster.
