Marie-Anne Collot, Forgotten Sculptor of the Enlightenment

A prodigy unjustly forgotten

In the heart of the Enlightenment, Marie-Anne Collot was hailed by her contemporaries as one of the most gifted sculptors of her time, called a "phenomenon" and a "prodigy". Born in Paris in 1748, she revealed herself very young in the delicate art of the sculpted portrait. Her name, however, has today unjustly fallen into oblivion, eclipsed by those of the great male masters of her era. The exhibition sets out to right this wrong and rediscover an exceptional career, driven by precocious talent and a determination rare for a woman artist of the 18th century.

Milestones of a European career

Trained in the workshop of the sculptor Étienne-Maurice Falconet, whose daughter-in-law she would become, Marie-Anne Collot led a career that took her far beyond France's borders, notably as far as the Russian court. This focused exhibition retraces, through images, the major stages of that prodigious path, highlighting some of the artist's finest works held in French public collections. Sculpted portraits, expressive busts: here you discover the finesse and truthfulness that made her reputation, able to capture a face and a character in a few strokes of clay or marble.

A treasure kept in Nancy

It is no accident that Nancy devotes an exhibition to Marie-Anne Collot: the Musée des Beaux-Arts holds a remarkable set of the artist's works, which entered the collections in the 19th century through a bequest. It was, moreover, in Nancy that the sculptor died, in 1821. The city thus maintains an intimate bond with this figure, which gives the exhibition a special flavour. To see these busts where the artist spent her final years is to reconnect a thread of history and give body to a memory long erased, in the prestigious setting of Place Stanislas.

A visit to add to your stay

The Musée des Beaux-Arts stands at 3 place Stanislas, on Nancy's most famous square, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Discovering the Collot exhibition fits naturally into a day of sightseeing: you can round it off with the rich permanent collections, from old paintings to the famous Daum glassware displayed in the basement. The display, presented over a long period, leaves plenty of leeway to choose your moment. It is an ideal cultural stop, for art lovers as much as for those curious about women's history, at the heart of an exceptional urban ensemble.

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