Discover other objects from the Bourdelle Museum

Now hanging on the wall of the sculpture studio, this alpine bell recalls Bourdelle’s family origins. His grandfather and uncle were goatherds and the artist took some pride in saying that he had tended herds as a child. Bourdelle hung the bell in the dining room of his apartment at 6 avenue du Maine...

This manual press was used to reproduce documents before carbon paper or photocopying were invented. The process was patented by Scottish engineer James Watt in 1780. The press comprises a fixed frame and a movable horizontal plate raised and lowered by a large screw. To copy a letter or drawing, a sheet of damp copy paper was laid over the original...

Made Knight of the French Legion of Honour in 1909 and Officer in 1919, Antoine Bourdelle was promoted to the rank of Commander on 24 February 1924 at the recommendation of the Minister of Public Instruction, Léon Bérard. It was the painter Albert Besnard (who co-founded the Salon des Tuileries with Bourdelle in 1923) who officially received him on 20 March 1924...

Bourdelle spent the summer of 1920 on the Côtes d’Armor. In a notebook, he recorded the contact details of antique dealers in the region and the works that he found. He bought two Gothic beams from an antique dealer in Saint-Brieuc, as mentioned in a letter he wrote on 17 October to Jules Quercy, his great friend from Montauban: “In Brittany, I bought a statue, some carved Gothic beams and some beautiful antique furniture, at a very good upon.”...