Photograph Collection

The Musée Bourdelle's photograph collections include around 20,000 documents dating from 1880 to the present day. Most of them were donated to the City of Paris by the artist's daughter, Rhodia Dufet Bourdelle, in 1995. Extremely rich and of undeniable aesthetic quality, the collections consist of around 13,800 prints of various types and around 5,500 negatives, on glass or on a flexible film base. This monographic set provides a first-hand insight into the artist's private and professional life. It includes photographs collected by Bourdelle throughout his life: reproductions of works of art that make up a veritable museum in picture form, as well as photographs of Bourdelle’s own sculptures, paintings and drawings, taken by the artist himself or under his direction. They provide a documentary record and, at the same time, serve an aesthetic purpose. Bourdelle also conceptualised and supervised numerous shots of his studio, models, students, friends, collectors and exhibitions devoted to him. Photographs of family members and prints given to the artist by his various acquaintances complete the museum’s photographic collection.