Google uses AI to reconstruct sculptors’ lost studios for “Visionaries” in Paris

Google Arts & Culture and artist Prune Nourry are using generative AI to reconstruct the workspaces of women sculptors for a film accompanying “Visionaries” at the Petit Palais in Paris. [Google’s October 21 account](https://blog.google/company‑news/outreach‑and‑initiatives/arts‑culture/visionaries‑petit‑palais‑art‑basel‑paris‑prune‑nourry/) describes a 10‑minute documentary made with director Vincent Lorca, drawing on archives where photographs of the artists’ actual studios are scarce. The exhibition, which opened on October 20 according to the announcement, presents Nourry’s monumental plaster portraits of 18 historical women sculptors. The film adds a different medium: research materials become the starting point for imagined views of their working spaces. For viewers, the important question is which parts come from surviving records and which parts the production has reconstructed.

[The project team’s account](https://blog.google/company‑news/outreach‑and‑initiatives/arts‑culture/visionaries‑petit‑palais‑art‑basel‑paris‑prune‑nourry/) says three art historians spent a year gathering letters, journals and photographic portraits of women who lived and worked in Paris. Those materials can establish details about the artists and their lives, while leaving gaps in the visual record of the rooms where they worked. Lynn Cherny, creative technologist‑in‑residence at the Google Arts & Culture Lab, used Google’s generative AI and image‑editing models to recreate studios associated with Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, Jane Poupelet and Camille Claudel. The production therefore combines historical research with choices about what a missing scene should look like. A finished image can make a workspace easier to imagine without turning that scene into a newly discovered archival photograph.

The team used a custom tool built with Google Gemini to create 3D models from archival photographs and animate camera paths, [according to the announcement](https://blog.google/company‑news/outreach‑and‑initiatives/arts‑culture/visionaries‑petit‑palais‑art‑basel‑paris‑prune‑nourry/). That lets the film move through the reconstructed spaces instead of showing only a succession of still images. Google describes a production workflow for the documentary. It does not provide an accuracy evaluation for the reconstructed rooms or identify which visual details are directly established by each surviving source. The result is best read as an authored presentation of historical material, with the camera movement and generated imagery contributing to the storytelling.

In another sequence, Nourry and Lorca use AI image editing to make the women gradually disappear from an archival photograph of Antoine Bourdelle’s studio, leaving the men visible. [Google describes the effect](https://blog.google/company‑news/outreach‑and‑initiatives/arts‑culture/visionaries‑petit‑palais‑art‑basel‑paris‑prune‑nourry/) as a way to show how women vanished from accounts of art history. Here, the visible change is deliberately created for the film. It illustrates a historical argument through editing rather than showing an unaltered record of who attended the studio. Keeping the original photograph, the edited sequence and the accompanying explanation distinct helps a viewer understand what the image is being asked to communicate.

[Google lists “Visionaries”](https://blog.google/company‑news/outreach‑and‑initiatives/arts‑culture/visionaries‑petit‑palais‑art‑basel‑paris‑prune‑nourry/) at the Petit Palais from October 20, 2026, through January 30, 2027, with the film installation in the museum galleries. Its article points to a behind‑the‑scenes trailer online on Google Arts & Culture. That describes an online preview alongside the gallery installation; it does not establish that the complete documentary is available to watch online. Anyone planning a visit still needs the museum’s current hours and admission information. The announcement does not provide those details. For readers watching material online, the useful distinction is between the historical sources, the generated reconstruction and the film’s own explanation of how they were combined. *Historical photograph: Jane Poupelet in her Paris studio, circa 1925, by Thérèse Bonney. Source: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jane_Poupelet_ark_73873_pf0001618239_v0001.jpg) / The Regents of the University of California, The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley; [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Archival context, not an AI reconstruction or a photograph of the 2026 exhibition. Original JPEG unchanged; responsive display cropping and downscale only.*