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A 10-minute documentary made by artist Prune Nourry, director Vincent Lorca and Google Arts & Culture uses generative AI to recreate the studios of historical women sculptors in Paris. The film accompanies Nourry’s “Visionaries” exhibition, which opened at the Petit Palais on October 20 and runs through January 30, 2027.
Artist Prune Nourry and Google Arts & Culture have created a 10-minute documentary using generative AI to reconstruct the studios of women sculptors who worked in Paris. The film is installed alongside Nourry’s exhibition “Visionaries”, which opened at the Petit Palais on October 20 and presents portraits of 18 historical women artists.
The film was developed with director Vincent Lorca after a year of research by three art historians. They gathered letters, journals and photographic portraits related to women sculptors who lived and worked in Paris. The project focused on a gap in the historical record: few photographs of the artists’ actual workspaces survive.
To visualize those studios, Lynn Cherny, creative technologist-in-residence at the Google Arts & Culture Lab, used Google’s generative AI and image-editing models. A custom tool built with Google Gemini helped the team make 3D models from archival photographs and animate camera paths, creating virtual views through studios associated with artists including Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Jane Poupelet and Camille Claudel.
A separate sequence uses image editing to make female students gradually disappear from an archival photograph of Antoine Bourdelle’s studio, leaving the men visible. The filmmakers say the sequence is intended to represent how women’s contributions were left out of art history. Google’s report describes the technology as experimental; the reconstructed spaces are visual interpretations, not newly discovered photographs of the studios.
Making Women Artists Visible
The project pairs a museum exhibition with an attempt to address a practical limitation in researching artists’ lives: their workspaces are poorly documented. Letters and portraits can establish details about people and their period, but they do not provide a complete visual record of the places where the artists worked. The film uses those materials as a basis for imagined reconstructions, making the absence of direct photographic evidence part of the story rather than concealing it.
The subject also concerns how art history has represented women. Google’s account says women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were often presented as models or muses, while their work as artists received less attention. Nourry’s exhibition and the accompanying film focus on 18 sculptors’ creative legacies. Their presentation at the Petit Palais gives visitors a chance to encounter the portraits and the film together, though the source does not report visitor response or independent evaluations of the project.
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From Archival Research to Exhibition
According to Google’s report, women sculptors worked across Paris during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, despite social restrictions and limited access to artistic training. The film’s research team used written records and existing images to develop its account of individual artists. Because surviving photographs rarely show their studios, the team turned to generative tools to construct plausible visual settings.
The documentary was made in collaboration between Nourry, Google Arts & Culture and Lorca. It is part of the exhibition “Visionaries,” which opened October 20, 2026, timed to coincide with Art Basel Paris. The exhibition features monumental plaster portraits made by Nourry of 18 historical female sculptors. The film is being shown in the museum galleries, and Google Arts & Culture has also posted a behind-the-scenes trailer online.
““Because few historical photos of their actual workspaces exist,” the team used generative AI and image-editing models to bring the studios to life.”
— Google Arts & Culture’s project report
Limits of the Studio Reconstructions
The report does not specify which details in each recreated studio come directly from archival evidence and which were generated to fill gaps. It also does not provide technical documentation, independent assessment of the reconstructions’ historical accuracy, or information about how the team reviewed possible inaccuracies. The scenes should be understood as AI-assisted interpretations, not verified visual records of the studios.
Google says its generative AI is experimental. The source does not describe the models’ limitations in detail or explain whether the artists’ estates or other specialists reviewed the finished scenes. It also gives no audience figures or response to the exhibition and film, which are still on view.
Exhibition Runs Through January
“Visionaries” is scheduled to remain at the Petit Palais through January 30, 2027, with the documentary installed in the museum galleries. Google Arts & Culture has made a behind-the-scenes trailer available online. The source does not announce additional screenings, a touring schedule or further project releases.
Visitors and online viewers can see the team’s visual approach, but the historical record itself remains limited. Any fuller account of how the reconstructions were checked against archival evidence would depend on further details from the project team or museum.
Key Questions
What is the Prune Nourry project?
It is a 10-minute documentary made by Nourry, director Vincent Lorca and Google Arts & Culture. It uses generative AI to visualize studios associated with historical women sculptors in Paris.
Which artists’ studios are shown?
The report names Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Jane Poupelet and Camille Claudel as artists whose studios are brought to life in the film. It does not provide a complete list of every studio represented.
How were the studio scenes made?
The team used Google generative AI and image-editing models. A custom tool built with Google Gemini was used to make 3D models from archival photographs and animate camera movements.
Are the reconstructions historical photographs?
No. The scenes are AI-assisted visualizations created because few photographs of the sculptors’ actual workspaces survive. The report does not establish that the generated interiors are exact reconstructions.
How long is the exhibition open?
“Visionaries” opened at the Petit Palais on October 20, 2026, and is scheduled to run through January 30, 2027. The film is installed in the museum galleries.
Source: rss
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