Sophie Verger French, b. 1953

  • Overview
    View works. Sophie Verger, Elephant au jardin, 2024
    Elephant au jardin, 2024
    View works

    "An Old Tale of Animal - A Childhood Dream"

    A Merger of Anthropomorphic Being with Human

     

    • It is a very old story, perhaps a myth, perhaps not, when the earth was a garden where they lived in peace, an era of harmony and of games: the childhood of the world. It was a time when the children of men learned to speak the language of the seal, even before the forces of nature incarnates themselves sometimes in the hippopotamus, sometimes in the crocodile.

     

    • Sophie Verger sculpts poems, whole tales in one piece... All these stories that make us grow, this need to constantly rediscover the time when naivety was protecting us and instinct was our guide, but also all this spontaneous joy, this humor and this tenderness which she sculpts in the details of the gesture. Sophie Verger offers both the subject of our childhood and a primitive reminder to the child who remains in us, to return to that essential of life after which we run, all of us every day.

     

    • Sophie Verger is a fairy who knows how to transform an emotion into an animal, a sensation, a feeling in a recollected memory. She combines these anthropomorphic being and mixes the human and the animal world in surprising ways. A world that nobody really believes in, but that must continue to pursue its existence. By echoing the complexity of human relationships, by remaining alien to received ideas, the world of Sophie Verger has lost its point of reference.

  • Biography
    catherine meulemans and sophie verger, éléphant au jardin sculpture en bronze de sophie verger chez art thema

    European Prizes & Museum Expositions

    Public & Private Collections

    Sophie Verger (Paris, 1953) is a contemporary French sculptor internationally recognised for her poetic animal sculptures exploring the subtle relationships between humans and animals.

    Her work develops a singular sculptural universe where animals become carriers of memory, emotion, humour and transmission. Through expressive modelling and carefully balanced compositions, Sophie Verger creates sculptures that resonate both as intimate narratives and timeless archetypes.

    Inspired by mythology, childhood imagination, observation of animal behaviour and historical sculpture traditions, her work evokes what she describes as “the childhood of the world” — a symbolic space where humans and animals still shared a common language.

    Rather than representing animals as subjects alone, Sophie Verger reveals their emotional intelligence and their proximity to human experience. Her sculptures often suggest moments of protection, learning, playfulness or transformation, allowing viewers to reconnect with a deeper and instinctive perception of the living world.

     

    Artistic approach

     

    Trained in Paris at Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Montparnasse 80, and École Camondo, Sophie Verger discovered sculpture while studying drawing at the Musée Bourdelle. She later entered the École des Beaux-Arts, where her sculptural language progressively developed between observation and imagination.

    A decisive turning point occurred after her encounter with 15th-century German sculpture at the Louvre, which led her to explore hybrid figures combining human and animal presences — a theme that still nourishes her work today.

    Over time, animals naturally became central to her artistic practice. Wildlife — especially bears, elephants, lions and other symbolic species — now forms the core vocabulary of her sculptural language.

     

    Recognition & museum exhibitions

     

    Sophie Verger’s sculptures have been presented in numerous museum exhibitions, public commissions and international art fairs, confirming her position within contemporary European animal sculpture.

    Her work has been exhibited notably at:

    • Musée François Pompon, Saulieu
    • Musée Bourdelle (animal sculpture exhibition)
    • Natural History Museum of Lille
    • Musée Château de Boulogne-sur-Mer
    • Archaeological Museum of Val-d’Oise
    • Sorbonne courtyard presentation (Paris)
    • Aquarium Museum of Nancy

    and many institutional venues across France and Europe.

     

    Public and private collections

     

    Her sculptures are held in municipal collections in France, including:

    Berck, Chantilly, Saint-Brieuc, Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, Sarlat, Vauréal, Villers-Cotterêts and Viroflay.

    They also belong to private collections in the United States, Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands.

     

    Exhibitions & art fairs

     

    Sophie Verger regularly exhibits in galleries and major European art fairs, including:

    London Art Fair
    Affordable Art Fair Brussels
    Namur Antica
    Art Up Lille
    Salon Vivre Côté Sud (Aix-en-Provence)
    SMART Aix

     

    She has presented numerous solo exhibitions throughout France and Europe, as well as museum-scale installations in sculpture gardens and cultural institutions.

     

    She has been a resident artist represented by Art Thema Gallery for over ten years.

  • Elephants
  • Bears
  • Others