Image: Prune Nourry, Jane Poupelet (bronze) (detail), 2025. Bronze with white patina and marble eyes, 71.1 × 66.7 × 40.3 cm. Photo © Laurent Edeline. Courtesy of the artist and Templon, Paris – Brussels – New York.
The Petit Palais in Paris has given artist Prune Nourry a carte blanche across the museum for 'Visionnaires', an exhibition that turns attention to women sculptors who remain little known or have been overlooked by art history. Running from 20 October 2026 to 24 January 2027, the project is curated by Sixtine de Saint-Léger, head of decorative arts before 1800 and of contemporary art at the Petit Palais.
At Nourry's request, three art historians spent a year gathering the writings and photographic portraits of eighteen sculptors active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, women who lived or worked in Paris when the city was a cosmopolitan artistic capital. Drawing on the quality of their work and the strength of their commitment, Nourry then sculpted a portrait of each of them, a group she calls the 'visionnaires'.
Those portrayed include Käthe Kollwitz, Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Hélène Bertaux, Jane Poupelet, Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry, Selma Hortense Burke, Daria Gamsaragan, Sarah Bernhardt and Wang Jingyuan. According to the exhibition announcement, these pioneers made their mark in a largely male-dominated field despite social constraints and limited access to artistic training, while women in the history of sculpture were long regarded mainly as models or muses and their role as creators pushed into the background.
The project also turns a lens on the museum itself: the announcement notes that barely four percent of the works in the Petit Palais collection were made by women. Nourry's eighteen portraits are placed among the permanent collection, from the sculpture gallery to the garden. One of them, a portrait of Jane Poupelet dated 2025, is cast in bronze with a white patina and set with marble eyes.
An audioguide on Bloomberg Connects draws on the sculptors' letters and writings, with their words performed by artists working today. The accompanying programme includes an opening conversation between Nourry and the curator, a study day titled 'Sculptrices, regards et représentations', a meeting between Nourry and Ghada Hatem-Ganzer, guided tours, and clay, drawing and paper-relief workshops for children, families and adults.
The exhibition has been organised with the support of Galerie Templon and the artist's patrons.
