The Gold and the Clay: The Life Story of Camille Claudel and a Paris Itinerary Following Her

Camille Claudel (1864-1943) was a talented sculptor and painter who died abandoned in a closed mental institution but was rediscovered by the general public in the XNUMXs. Her sculptural art, both realistic and expressionist, is close, in its sophisticated use of circular, sinuous and diagonal lines, to the movement called Art Nouveau. Like many of her colleagues, the sculptor was influenced by Japanese art and knew how to assimilate its characteristics into her own personal and original work.

Camille Claudel was the sister of the writer, playwright, poet, member of the Academy and diplomat, Paul Claudel. She was also, for about a dozen years, the student, assistant and lover of one of the world's greatest sculptors, Auguste Rodin. The reputation of these two giants, brother Paul Claudel and teacher and lover Auguste Rodin, somewhat overshadowed that of Camille Claudel during her lifetime and after. Camille Claudel's works were always displayed in salons and exhibitions, both during her hospitalization and after her death - the interest in them never really stopped, but her fame never reached the general public. About forty years after her death, a revolution took place, thanks to a book and a film. The book is by Anne Delba, a woman, Camille Claudel:

Anne Delbée, Une Femme, Camille Claudel, Fayard, 1982, translated into Hebrew: Anne Delbée, Camille Claudel, from French: Israel Marchan, Or Am, 1989

The film, starring Isabelle Adjani and Gérard Depardieu, is adapted from a biography of Camille Claudel by Renée-Marie Paris, her niece:

Camille Claudel, director: Bruno Nuytten, 1988

Thanks to a bestseller and a successful film from the 1980s, Camille Claudel's name has been on everyone's lips ever since. Other books and films have been written about her, plays and dance performances have been dedicated to her, her letters have been published, places and institutions have been named after her. The author and member of the Academy, Dominique Bonnet, has devoted a detailed and documented study to the relationship between the sister and brother, Camille and Paul Claudel:

Dominique Bona, Camille et Paul – la passion Claudel, Grasset, 2006, translated into Hebrew: Dominique Bona, Brothers of Passion, Camille and Paul Claudel, from French: Rama Ayalon, Maariv, 2009

And not only that. A museum, bearing her name and dedicated to her, was established in 2017, in Nogent-sur-Seine, a town where Camus spent three years of her childhood. The museum is an architectural complex and includes at the entrance the house where the Claudel family lived from 1876 to 1879.

Renée-Marie Paris, granddaughter of Paul Claudel and daughter of Renée Claudel, who devoted many years to promoting the reputation of her grandfather's sister, sold most of Camus's sculptures, which she had acquired with great effort, to the museum for about 13 million euros (a striking contrast to the miserable conditions in which Camus was kept for the last thirty years of her life, at the end of which she died of malnutrition).

The brilliant sculptor, Camille Claudel, has finally achieved widespread international recognition in her own right.

The childhood and youth of Camille Claudel

Camille Claudel was born on December 8, 1864, in the village of Fère-en-Tardenois, near Soissons, to a tax collector father and a traditional housewife mother. The year before, the couple had a baby, Charles-Henri, who died after 16 days. Camille's mother did not love the child born to her after her son's death. Did the mother subconsciously blame the baby for the tragedy?

In any case, Camus's mother held a grudge against her and acted against her throughout her life. Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Brigitte Fabre-Pellerin, who participated in a video dedicated to Camus Claudel, writes in this regard in her book Camille Claudel, The Agony of Lack (Camille Claudel: The torment of absence) the following:

The masculine lines that characterize the style of many of Camus's future sculptures can be attributed, among other things, to the abandoned daughter's desire to fill the place of her deceased son in order to win the love of her cold mother. (My free translation, A.L.)

The title of Brigitte Fabre-Flerin's book is taken from the words of Camus Claudel herself, who wrote in one of her letters to Auguste Rodin: “There is always something missing that torments me” (“Il ya toujours quelque chose d'absent qui me tourmente”). The psychiatrist wrote another book about Camus Claudel, which is also fascinating. I recommend it to my readers French Take a look at the review of both books on the excellent website “Babelio.” For one book HERE, to the second book HERE.

https://youtu.be/qLs78HWx4Lg

Two years after the birth of Camus, who became, after the death of her baby brother, the eldest daughter, Louise was born, who would lead a conventional life, to the mother's liking, and would win her sympathy. Two years after the birth of Louise, Paul was born, who would become a famous writer and diplomat. In 1876, the family moved, on the occasion of the father's appointment to a new position, to Nogent-sur-Seine and settled in an 18th-century bourgeois house. This house is located in front of the Camus-Claudel Museum.

Camus, only 12 years old, is a clay sculptor. The girl's talent, which manifested itself so early, attracted the attention of the sculptor Alfred Boucher, a local who had moved to the capital and succeeded there. Camus's father supported his daughter and protected her from the hostility of her mother, who showed strong opposition to the artistic direction Camus had chosen. The conflict between the father, who agreed to Camus's desire to study and sculpt inParis, on the advice of Boucher, and the mother, who opposed the transition, ended in the father's victory.

In 1882, therefore, the mother and three children (the father stayed behind for his work) moved to the capital and settled on the Boulevard Montparnasse. Camus continued to benefit from the advice of Alfred Boucher, who came to see her regularly, and worked in a workshop that she shared with other sculptors, including two Frenchwomen, one Finnish woman, and three Englishwomen.

In the photograph, 1887, we see on the left Camille Claudel working on the work “Sakuntala”, sculpted by Mater Cotta, life-size, and on the right Jessie Lipscom, one of the Englishwomen, in her workshop on the rue Notre Dame des Champs. The photograph was taken by Jessie’s husband, William Elborne. Jessie became Camille’s soulmate, traveled with her on a trip to England and was one of the few who visited her after she was hospitalized. Jessie and Camille sculpted each other’s portraits.

Camille Claudel and Jesse Lipscomb in a workshop on Notre Dame de Champs. Source: Wikimedia, in the public domain

A sharp turn came in Camille Claudel's life when Alfred Boucher won the prize and went to Florence to claim it. Boucher recommended her to his friend Auguste Rodin, thus making possible the fateful meeting between the mature artist and the aspiring artist.

Camille Claudel meets Auguste Rodin

In 1884, Camille Claudel, not yet 20 years old, entered the studio of the renowned sculptor, Auguste Rodin, 42, in the 182th arrondissement, XNUMX, rue de l'Université. Rodin was already famous as a sculptor, at the height of his maturity as an artist. He had admirers, he had enemies. Rodin also had a reputation as a serial seducer of women. All the women who served as his models were also his lovers. Rodin adored women and they knelt before him. They stood before him naked, and he kneaded, molded and shaped, removed their hearts, sculpted their bodies, immortalized their beauty in plaster and stone. Rodin's Bible was nature, his god – Eros.

This is how Camille Claudel sculpted Auguste Rodin in 1897:

Camille Claudel, Portrait of Auguste Rodin, Rodin Museum, Paris. Source: Wikimedia, Public Domain

Alongside the maestro's many loves, his faithful companion, Rose Beuret, lived permanently. Auguste Rodin met Rose Beuret, a 20-year-old hatmaker and flower and feather seamstress, in 1864, the year Camus was born and two years after the death of his beloved sister, Maria. Maria supported her brother at the beginning of his career, convinced their father to allow him to pursue sculpture, and consoled and encouraged him when he was rejected three times from the Academy of Fine Arts.

The faithful Rose continued to play the role of Maria, the sister who died tragically and left Rodin in pain and torment. Without Maria, who lifted his spirits when he was humbled to the ground, August would not have reached where he did. Can the same be said about Rose? Rose clung to him and did not let go. From the moment they met, they were never apart. Rose was the woman of Rodin's life, a partner, a caregiver, a mother and a sister, a help against him, tied to him in thickets, poverty and distress at the beginning of the journey and in the wealth that his success brought later.

And even when cunning mistresses were about to rob him of his fortune at the end of his life, Rose stood by him and looked at him with her loving gaze. A traditional housewife, Rose cooked for him delicacies, excelled at roast beef Bourguignon, and bore him a son, Auguste Eugène Beuret, in 1866, when Camille Claudel was two years old. Rodin never knew his son with Rose. Auguste-Eugène Beuret had to be content with the first name Auguste and never bore the surname Rodin.

This is how Auguste Rodin sculpted Rose Barre in 1870:

Auguste Rodin, Portrait of Rose Barre, Museum of Fine Arts, Angers. Photo: Wikimedia, in the public domain

Auguste Rodin married his beloved Rose when she was already sick and dying, in 1917, two weeks before she died of pneumonia, at the age of 73. Did Rodin agree to the marriage ceremony in order to thank, briefly, at the last minute, the woman who had accompanied him all along the way, without conditions or reservations? “A grotesque family life,” as Mr. Camus Claudel mockingly called the Auguste-Rose relationship, or a deep connection that served the great artist as a blessed anchor?

Each one has his own glasses. Nine months later, at the end of that year, in November, Rodin also died, at the age of 77. August Rodin and Rose Berre rest forever, side by side, in the shadow of “The Thinking Man,” in the park of their home in Medon, where they lived for the last twenty years of their lives. The house, the sculpture studio, and the park now constitute a museum.

To the Auguste Rodin Museum website in Medon (about half an hour from Paris)

Twelve years with Auguste Rodin

In 1884, when Camille Claudel entered Auguste Rodin's studio, it was already a finished sculpture, behind which his work called "The Man with the Broken Nose" (L'Homme au nez cassé), 1864-1865, took pride of place.

Auguste Rodin, The Man with the Broken Nose, Musée Dorsa. Photo: Wikimedia, in the public domain

Camille Claudel was then a beautiful and witty girl, fresh and refreshing, with dark blue eyes that betrayed her determination. The sharp-tongued, adoring and mocking Camille knew her worth to the point of arrogance. Life was ahead of her and she would conquer the world. Didn't she start to write at the age of 7? Didn't she win appreciation for her works "Paul, 13" and "Elaine the Old Woman"? These two works of hers that she showed to the dictator impressed him, indeed, deeply.

In those days, women sculptors were in the minority, even more so than they are today. Sculpture was considered a masculine occupation, not only because of the strength required to shape the material but also because it was inappropriate for a female artist to stand and work in front of a naked model. Camus did not give much thought to conventions, and the maestro recognized the apprentice’s talent. “I showed her where to find the gold, but the gold she found was hers,” he said.

Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel shared a similar sensibility even before they met. “La vieille Hélène,” for example, 1881-1882, a work by Camille executed, as mentioned, before her meeting with the maestro, reveals the similar sensibility of the two artists. Camille designed the portrait of the old woman in a style close to Rodin’s.

Camus used her parents' maid as a model for the portrait. It is puzzling and intriguing that even at a young age, Camus was interested in the stage of old age, which would become one of her main motifs. With a stark realism and intense expressiveness reminiscent of Rodin, Camus carved the maid's face with wrinkles and gave her an alert, amused gaze and narrow, smiling lips.

Rodin, who was flooded with commissions, both state and private, and could not do everything himself, hired many assistants to whom he assigned various tasks. This was the practice of all sought-after artists since the Renaissance, otherwise they would not have been able to cope with the enormous amount of work. Camus became his favorite assistant. The maestro sculpted the body of the works, and Camus completed the hands and feet. Camus's mark is evident in many of Rodin's works, such as, for example, "The Gates of Hell," "The Saviors of Calais," "Tombstone for Balzac" ("Rodin's Balzac") and more.

Rodin promoted his student and was not jealous of her. He knew his own worth well and was not afraid of rivalry or competition. At the same time as she worked with Rodin, Camus sculpted her own personal and independent works, and the maestro allowed her to sign her works and exhibited them in exhibitions, alongside his own. For example, Camus signed her clay sculpture “The Girl with the Sheaf” (La jeune fille à la gerbe), 1886, which was declared a “national treasure” in 2003 and bought a year later by the state for 000 euros, thanks to the generosity of Natixis-Banque Populaire.

It is interesting to note that in 1899, Rodin exhibited a similar sculpture, but in marble, called “Galatée.” It is likely that this was a gesture of affection and respect from the maestro to his beloved student.

Auguste Rodin, Galatea, Rodin Museum, Paris. Source: Museum website

She, in turn, allowed him to use her work as a starting point for a sculpture with his signature, a testament to the passion of her love for him. A year later, the same girl, from Camus’s sculpture “Girl with a Sheaf”, with the addition of a small boy, appears in Rodin’s bronze sculpture “Brother and Sister” (Frère et sœur).

Auguste Rodin, Brother and Sister, Rodin Museum, Paris. Source: Museum website

Brother Auguste expresses in it the tender and loving relationship that existed between him and his late sister, Marie: the sister embraces her little brother, who wraps her in his arms. The closeness of the two figures can also be seen, in reverse, as a symbol of the love of the couple of sculptors, Camus and Auguste. Camus knew what a close bond with a brother is. The relationship of the eldest Camus with her brother Claudel was indeed different from Rodin's relationship with his eldest sister Marie, but a certain parallel can still be seen between them.

Rodin sculpted Camus's portrait, Camus sculpted Rodin's portrait. If Camus learned a lot from the veteran teacher, Rodin was also inspired by the freshness and originality of the sculptor at the beginning of his journey. Camus's view of his works opened a path for him to other realms. Thanks to Camus, he did not settle for his achievements and was renewed with youthful vigor. They were two twin souls united in their art. From model, student, and muse, Camus became almost an equal, an equal.

Like most of the women who were in Rodin's company, Camus also became his lover, except that this time the situation was different. Until now, Auguste had conquered his admirers, easy prey, without any difficulty. In Camus' case, Rodin fell in love first with the talented sculptor and then with the woman. In Camus's eyes, the successful sculptor did not read blind admiration as in the eyes of the other women, but rather a challenge:

My talent is equal to your talent. I will do like you, I will do different from you, the opposite of you, better than you.

The temptress became the suitor, the hunter the hunted. And this new feeling stirred Auguste. Camus conquered him with her arrogance and stormy temper. From now on, Rodin could not part with his beloved.

Three Magical Summers in Lillet Castle

Starting in 1891, for three years (some say four), the pair of sculptors, Auguste and Camus, used to meet at the beautiful Château de l'Islette, in the Touraine region, a magical place of inspiration, a vast park that is a pleasure to walk in, the Indre River in which you can safely swim, delicious meals in the dining room overlooking a well-kept garden on both sides. Rodin arrived in Balzac's birthplace after receiving an invitation from Émile Zola, head of the Writers' Union at the time, to sculpt a statue of the writer (the "Tombstone for Balzac" or "Rodin's Balzac" can now be seen in the garden of the Rodin Museum in Paris and at 136, Boulevard Raspail,

During his tours of the area to research the figure of Balzac, Rodin located the castle of Lille and invited his young lover to join him. Camus fell in love with the place. When she once arrived at the castle before Rodin, she begged him to come as early as possible so that they could taste “paradise” together. Rodin was working there, as mentioned, on his huge sculpture, “Tombstone for Balzac” (or “Rodin’s Balzac”), which shocked the artists of the time and caused scandals, and Camus was busy with her important personal sculpture “The Lady of the Little Castle.”

Camus used the granddaughter of the castle's owners as a model, but the girl's hallucinatory gaze expresses Camus's own distress. The portrait of the girl, in which Camus included her own hardships as an adult, testifies to the sculptor's greatness, and can also be seen as a universal representation of childhood, alongside portraits such as "Ellen the Elder" and "Klotho," which represent adulthood. The different stages of life, combined with the weight of fate, constitute important motifs in the sculptor's work.

To the site of Lillet Castle, the love nest of Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel

A dramatic farewell to Rodan

Rose shed tears during the Christmas holidays that her husband spent with his young lover. Rodin even promised Camille marriage and signed a contract in which he agreed to her demands to be her exclusive partner and not accept other apprentices. But he who laughs last laughs. Rodin, who was frightened by Camille's extremism and realized that he would not be able to live a comfortable life with her, quickly went back on his promise and refused to leave the calm and submissive, forgiving and understanding Rose.

Camus's hatred for Rose turned into contempt. Her love for Rodin turned into hatred. Camus's outbursts of jealousy further distanced Rodin, who had always been entrenched in the comfort of his relationship with Rose. But it was the rebellious and tempestuous Camus who broke off her relationship with the maestro after about a dozen years of passionate love.

Some also say that Rodin forced Camus to terminate the pregnancy. Some say that they had several children, two or four, who were given up for adoption. Either way, Camus decided to end the relationship for good. From the moment Auguste Rodin reneged on his promise to break up with Rose, stop his adventures with other women, and marry her, Camus's world collapsed around her.

Her family turned their backs on her, Rodin turned his back on her, the audience remained. Maybe he would love her art and appreciate it as it should be? But the audience of Camus's time also turned their backs on her, in the end, after her separation from Rodin. Camus did not stop attacking and slandering the esteemed artist and as a result missed the opportunity to establish herself in her own right.

Fifteen years of creativity and solitude

In 1893, Camus wrote to her brother Paul:

I have a lot of new ideas that you will really like. (…). I enjoy working so much. (…). You see, it’s really not Rodan’s style.

Determined to free herself from her personal and professional ties with Rodin, Camus's independent career seems to have reached new heights. Camus spreads her wings, takes off, makes connections, and exhibits important works at various salons: "The Waltz," "Clotho," "The God Who Soars," "Old Age," "The Conversants," "Perseus and the Gorgon," and more.

The Rothschild family bought many sculptures from her and displayed them in museums in country towns, the Countess Arthur de Maigret, who lived on rue de Téhéran near Monceau Park, supported her, allowed her financial independence, and commissioned works from her, including “Perseus and the Gorgon,” but in 1905 their relationship broke off following a quarrel caused by Camus’s difficult character. Camus alienated many of her close associates with violent and angry behavior.

That same year, the important art dealer Eugène Blois, an amateur artist, exhibited her sculptures in his famous gallery at 5 Boulevard de la Madeleine. Blois continued to advance with two more exhibitions (in which, as in the previous one, others also exhibited), by reproducing her sculptures in bronze at the foundry he inherited from his father, and by publishing articles about her in the press. Blois even purchased unsold sculptures from her. Without a doubt, he was a loyal friend who did everything in his power to help the artist he admired, progress and rehabilitate after her separation from Rodin. It is impossible to talk about Camille Claudel without mentioning and detailing his role in her life.

The dear man, the energetic art dealer with the sharp eye and the broad heart, has, to most people's surprise, a great-grandson in Israel, Yoel Tamanlis, a prolific and talented photographer of Parisian sights, who lives in Modi'in. In Yoel Tamanlis's book Sa La Vie In his recently published and upcoming book, which will be entirely dedicated to his famous great-grandfather, it will be possible to read in detail about the connections between Camus and Lajean and much more.

Trouble comes in bundles. Camus lost at the same time the two people closest to her, besides her father: her beloved brother Paul and her revered colleague Auguste. Paul Claudel's career as a diplomat, appointments in New York, Boston, Shanghai, Japan , Brazil, alienated him from his sister, a estrangement that occurred at the same time that Camus separated from Rodin. After 1906, the year Paul Claudel left for China, Camus stopped creating and began to destroy her sculptures in fits of violence. The flow of commissions stopped and Camus was left without a source of income.

Rodin supported her financially, recommended her to his associates, and tried to get her invitations, but Camus accused him of canceling them. The events in Camus's life led to the outbreak of a mental illness, paranoid schizophrenia. Camus believed that Rodin and his gang were spying on her, harassing her, and persecuting her: Rodin had stolen her time, stolen her ideas when they worked together, and now, too, he was planning to steal her works. He and his emissaries secretly entered her house and robbed her of her sculptures. Not only did he rob her of her youth, he would also murder her. All of these were, of course, nothing more than hallucinations. Rodin tried to help her and even secretly paid her rent on the Île Saint-Louis for a certain period, but Camus was sure that he was trying to eliminate her.

Starting in 1911, the sculptor's condition worsened. Camus neglected basic hygiene rules, ate poorly, drank heavily, became fat and heavy, locked herself in her house with cats, tore off wall coverings, broke furniture, chained blinds, talked endlessly to herself in a monotonous voice. Only at nightfall would she go out, to heaven knows where. The neighbors complained.

Another fatal blow: In 1913, Camus' father, who had always been by her side, died. Camus was not informed of his death and the daughter did not attend her beloved father's funeral.

Thirty years in a closed mental institution

As long as her father was alive, her mother did not dare to harm Camus. A week after her father's death, her mother, with the signature of a doctor, Dr. Michaux, and with the consent of her brother Paul, transferred her to a closed mental institution, the Hospital de Ville-Évrard, about 10 km northeast of Paris, where she remained for about a year. In 1914, due to the outbreak of war, which mobilized hospitals for its efforts, Camus was transferred to another closed mental institution, in the south France, near the city of Avignon, then called the Montdevergues asylum (l'asile de Montdevergues) and now called the Avignon Montfavet Hospital Center (Le Centre Hospitalier Avignon Montfavet). Camus did not leave it until the day she died.

Did Rodin feel any guilt, similar to those he felt when his beloved sister Marie had locked herself in a convent because of unrequited love, fell ill, and died? The 22-year-old Rodin brought home a painter friend, Arthur Barnouvin, who befriended Marie and painted her portrait. Barnouvin came frequently to the family home and spoke highly of his friend's sister Auguste. Marie was desperately in love with him, and after Arthur reneged on his promise and announced that he would marry another girl, Marie entered the convent, but before she could take the vows of nunhood, she contracted an infection (peritonitis), was returned to the family home, and died at the age of only 24.

The grieving brother, Auguste Rodin the Younger, was heartbroken and on the verge of madness. He also shut himself up in the monastery and sculpted a portrait of the patriarch in his garden. The abbot urged him to go out into the world and fulfill his calling as a sculptor. After a few months, during which Rodin had recovered from his grief, he went out and did as the wise priest advised. Did Rodin, aged 73, feel the same feelings of guilt when Camus, like Maria, some 40 years later, lost her life because of unrequited love?

By 1913, Rodin was already old and ill and could not intervene in the unfortunate affair, which Paul Claudel also saw from the beginning as a dangerous rival who had stolen Camus from him. However, the great artist did not forget his former lover, transferred funds to her through a mutual friend and ordered the construction of a special complex dedicated to Camus in the future Rodin Museum in Paris.

Camus did not stop sending heartbreaking letters to her family, to the doctor who hospitalized her, and to various associates, in which she asked and begged to be taken out of the institution. The screams of the other inmates, the bad food, the difficult conditions, all of these are expressed poignantly in her letters.

It would have been worth it to be born with talent and work so hard to get paid like that. Not even a penny, torture of all kinds, no enjoyment of life's pleasures, and to end it like that.

Camille wrote to her cousin.

I won't tell you the epic story of my life so as not to make you sad. I am in an abyss. My life's dream has become a nightmare.

story Camus Lazenby.

Cami's mother closed her ears and heart. The mother refused all contact with her daughter and did not allow any dialogue. She never came to visit her, nor did her sister Louise, who was focused on her life with her husband and son. In a letter to the director of the institution, the mother says that she will never agree to take Cami out. She is willing to pay an additional fee for her daughter's hospitalization, but to release her - never.

From 1919 onwards, Camus's condition improved. Paul Claudel's granddaughter, Renée-Marie Paris, says that the director of the institution offered Camus's mother the chance to release her daughter, even twice. The mother refused vehemently, but in René-Marie Paris's opinion, if the family had provided Camus with a small apartment near a sculpture studio, Camus would most likely have started working again and found redemption.

But the attempt was not made and Camus' fate was sealed for the tribe by a cold and estranged mother and a brother who preferred not to risk his good name and promising and indeed successful career by intervening on behalf of his scandalous sister. Paul came to visit Camus about a dozen times over thirty years.

With the outbreak of World War II, conditions in the inmates became worse and Camille breathed her last, probably from malnutrition, on October 19, 1943, at the age of 78. Her funeral was attended only by the Mossad staff. Camille's body was buried in a temporary grave and then moved to a mass grave and from there to an unknown location. No one knows today where the brilliant sculptor is buried.

Autobiographical-universal works

Even when the sculptor was rediscovered thanks to the book and film mentioned above, the preoccupation with Camille Claudel's dramatic life cast a shadow over the preoccupation with her art. Art critics all agree that the injustice deserves to be righted. Camille was a great sculptor, with her own artistic world, even though she stopped creating at the age of 48.

Scantala

The work, originally called “Sakuntala,” has had other names and has been crafted from different materials. Subtle differences can be discerned between its versions, all of which shows the sculptor’s desire to encompass the subject and study and explore it from different perspectives.

At the Universal Exhibition of 1899, in the company of Claude de Bussy, Camus visited the opulent Japanese pavilion and was deeply impressed. Camus, like many of her colleagues, had a strong attraction to the art of the Far East. As early as 1886, she began work on “Sakountala,” a huge work inspired by an Indian legend that enchanted all of Europe at the time: a powerful king named Dushyant, during a hunting trip, accidentally meets a young woman, Sakuntala, the daughter of a sage, who lives in an isolated monastery. Dushyant and Sakuntala fell in love at first sight, married in secret, and consummated their love. A son was born from this night of love.

The king returned to his palace to prepare the wedding festivities and left Sakuntala a wedding ring, a pledge of his commitment to her. Sakuntala is so absorbed in her thoughts about the king that she does not notice the wandering monk and does not receive him as a guest. The monk, in his anger, casts a spell on the king so that he will no longer remember Sakuntala. She arrives at the king's court to be reunited with her lover, but he is unable to recognize her because of the angry monk's curse. Only the ring can restore his memory. Sakuntala lost the ring, but the story has a happy ending. The ring is found by a fisherman in the stomach of a carp, and the king and Sakuntala are reunited and receive the monks' blessing. Their son, Bharata, will become a great emperor and the father of the Indian nation.

Starting in 1886, Camus sculpted life-size, terracotta, Sakuntala and the king at the moment of recognition. In the photograph at the beginning of the article, Camus is seen completing the figure of Sakuntala in his workshop on the rue Notre Dame des Champs alongside Jesse.

The fairy tale has a happy ending. The king finally recognizes his beloved and acknowledges their love. In a moment of deep and intense emotion, of pure passion, of incomparable tenderness, he kneels and embraces her figure. She also raises her face to him and rests her head on his. Touching, not touching.

In 1888, two years after the terra cotta version, Camus presented “Sakuntala” in plaster at the “Salon des artistes français.” The audience loved the work and Camus even won a silver medal from the Salon.

Despite the success, Camus did not receive the expected invitation from the authorities to make a marble version of the work and had to wait until 1905, when her benefactor, la comtesse Arthur de Maigret, allowed her to fulfill her wish. Camus exhibited the marble version, smaller than the previous versions but more impressive, that year at the “Salon des Beaux-Arts” under a different name, “Vertumne et Pomone.” This version is considered the sculptor’s first important masterpiece and can be seen at the Rodin Museum in Paris.

The new title of the work refers to heroes from Roman mythology and tells a story that is different from the Indian legend but essentially similar. It also has a good ending, in which love triumphs over obstacles. Pomona was a beautiful nymph who foolishly rejected her suitors because all her attention was devoted to cultivating the fruit trees in the orchard. The god of seasons, cycles, and growth, Vertumnus, fell madly in love with her and decided to marry her. To this end, he came to her each time in a different disguise: a reaper, a harvester, a shepherd, a fisherman, a soldier, and all these professionals praised the god Vertumnus in her presence.

In a last attempt, he came to her in the disguise of an elderly woman who warned her about the dangers of rejecting love and praised the value of marriage. This trick also did not work, and then Vertomnes took off his clothes, which melted the heart of Pomona, who immediately fell in love with him. Pomona probably understood the sincerity of Vertomnes' love the moment he gave up the trick of disguise and showed her who he really was. From naked he became naked, free (barefoot), free from betrayal (clothes) and free from above (coat).

Vertomnes and Pomona married and lived happily, especially since they both grew fruit trees. A story that contrasts with that of the two sculptors, Rodin and Camus, who, despite their shared inner world, faced obstacles in their path.

That same year, 1905, Camus sculpted two more versions of the work, this time in bronze, cast by Eugène Bleu, in two different sizes. Camus exhibited them at the Salon d'Automne under the title "L'Abandon". The works are on display at the Musée Camus-Claudel.

The transition from Indian mythology to Roman mythology and from there to the word, “dedication,” which describes a state of mind that finds expression in an appropriate physical posture, indicates the sculptor’s intention to emphasize the universality of her work. Mythologies from different and distant lands are directed at the same human emotion that cannot be transcended. It should be added that Camus bravely faced scathing criticism that condemned her boldness in presenting her heroes, poses, and nudity, which was unacceptable for women at that time.

Despite Rodin's influence, the sculptor's independence is clearly evident in this work. The classical masterpiece, which celebrates the triumph of love and expresses both tenderness and sensuality, aroused admiration and appreciation.

Camus Claudel, Vertumnus and Pomona, Rodin Museum, Paris. Source: Museum website

The owner of the little castle

Many of Camus's works contain an autobiographical dimension, such as “The Lady of the Little Castle” (La Petite Châtelaine), which is also a self-portrait, as mentioned above. The portrait was executed by the sculptor in several versions. The version purchased by the Musée La Piscine in Roubaix, 1895-1896, is completely hollow on the inside, which indicates hard, patient, and long work and a strong ability to execute. Camus also smoothed the girl's hair so that it would catch the light. Camus's technique is incredibly sophisticated.

The Waltz

Some of Camus’s most powerful masterpieces express the difficulties of her separation from Rodin. His sculpture, in several versions, “La Valse,” 1889-1905, depicts a pair of passionate dancers on the brink of an abyss. The twists of the waltzer’s Art Nouveau dress, like the subtle imbalance of the couple’s movement, symbolize the vortex in which he finds himself. The bold modernity of the work brought the sculpture commercial success and official recognition.

Older age

Another masterpiece made after the separation from Rodin, 1899, is called “Mature Age” (L'Âge mûr) and it also freezes a dramatic moment of figures in motion. The work constitutes a double allegory, the end of the time of personal passion and the end of the time of universal youth. The older man's hand cuts off the arm of the girl who is begging to accept the older woman's embrace: Rodin preferred Rose to Camus.

At the same time, the work symbolizes the march of an aging man towards death, embodied by the figure of the older, somewhat monstrous woman. Youth and love, in the figure of Camus, who was only 28 when she separated from Rodin, beg for their lives, but no one is saved from the rush of time and the embrace of death. The sculptor's ability to simultaneously express the personal and the universal is admirable.

The differences in height between the pedestal on which the young woman kneels and the pedestal on which the older couple stand emphasize the gap between the young woman and the older couple and the impossibility of escaping age. The space between the young woman's hand and the man's hand, as well as the space between her and the couple, reinforces the sense of inevitable separation. The emptiness complements the fullness and reinforces the dramatic aspect of the work.

The conversationalists

In the years following Camille Claudel's separation from Auguste Rodin, between 1893 and 1905, her desire to free herself more and more from the maestro's influence and to go in completely different directions was evident. Rodin was busy enlarging his works, and so she, Camille, would sculpt small sculptures, creating intimate scenes from everyday life that had until then been the preserve of painting alone.

From her window on the Île Saint-Louis, and from her wanderings and travels, the artist observed what was happening on the street and in public spaces in order to immortalize fleeting moments. One of these moments surveys a group of naked women, called “The Talkers” (Les Causeuses), 1897, who are sweetening a secret in the shadow of a partition. This lends a theatrical aspect to the scene.

The sculpture is also called “The Chatters” (Les Bavardes) and “Confession” (La Confidence). A woman facing the viewer tells a secret to three friends, who huddle and bend over her so as not to miss, God forbid, a single word. The teller of the secret protects her mouth with her hand as if directing her words to the friends so that they reach their best address and do not stray to foreign ears. From a routine anecdote, which Camus captured in a train car, the sculptor, thanks to the nudity of the figures and the simplicity of the setting, has designed a universal and timeless scene.

On the one hand, the work depicts a common, banal scene, friends eavesdropping on a friend who is telling a secret. The name “The Chatters” fits this interpretation and also, although on a slightly higher level, the name “The Chatters.” On the other hand, the design of the work gives it a unique character, and the Japanese influence, the nudity, the women’s faces with prominent jaws contribute to this. The name “Confession” fits this interpretation, sublime, mythical, fateful, which rises above the banality of chatter or even conversation. The face of the speaking figure makes me think of a sublime prehistoric woman, who reveals to her friends the solution to the riddle of the universe. Naturalism, Japanism, and symbolism characterize Kami’s groundbreaking work.

Apparently, other similar sculptural works, namely small-scale works whose subjects are taken from everyday life, were destroyed by Camus, as she described in her letters. “The Conversations” is considered one of Camus’ masterpieces in which her originality and independence are expressed. Who knows what other masterpieces were burned in Camus’s fire.

Fortunately, this work exists and in many copies. First, Camus sculpted the work in plaster and exhibited it at the Paris Salon (Le Salon de Paris) in 1895. The work received a lot of attention at the Salon and was praised and praised by many critics.

Following its success, Camus added more versions, in onyx, bronze, and marble. There are all sorts of differences in design between the versions, as is Camus's custom.Gypsum version The one on display at the La Piscine Museum in the city of Roubaix does not, for example, have a partition.

The most famous version, from 1897, can be seen at the Rodin Museum in Paris.

Camille Claudel, The Conversants, Rodin Museum, Paris. Source: Museum website

The wave

The masterpiece “The Wave” (La Vague) also belongs to this independent period. In 1897, Camus exhibited “The Wave”, a plaster model, at the Paris Salon. Between 1898 and 1903, she made several versions of this work in bronze and bronze. “The Wave”, like “The Conversations”, also belongs to Camus’s independent period.

The work “The Wave,” also called “The Bathers,” was inspired by the famous 1831 Japanese print by Hokusai, with a similar title, “The Great Wave.” Instead of the fishermen in the three boats in the Japanese print, Kami sculpted three naked women, kneeling, looking at the wave. As in “The Conversation,” here too one of the figures in the group is different from the others, stands out, takes command. Here, it is the woman closest to the wave, the one who is less bent than the others, and she is the one looking directly at the crest of the wave.

The influence of Japan is prominent, the so-called Japonism. Asian culture stirred Kami, and like it many other artists in the second half of the nineteenth century. Onyx, reminiscent of Chinese jade, plays with light and shadow, and is unparalleled in imitating water. Bold use of different materials and colors attests to the originality of the sculptor, who successfully contrasts human beings with the forces of nature. 

Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave or Under the Great Wave off Kanagawa. Source: Wikimedia, Public Domain

Looking at the two works, “The Wave” and “The Conversationalists,” brings me to the thought of a conflict between them, “The Wave” being a kind of opposite of “The Conversationalists.” The wall in whose shadow the conversationalists were sheltered began to tremble, to move, as if in an earthquake, taking on the shape of a spiral, a dragon’s mouth, its teeth protruding, threatening to swallow. The protective wall, sheltering the conversationalists, promising a safe corner of solidarity, intimacy, sharing, became a danger, a threatening wave, jaws. There is solidarity here too, the three women holding each other’s hands, but will they be saved from drowning? Will this moment in which the terrifying wave froze last forever?

Who are the three women? Representations of Camus? And what does the wave symbolize? A wave of passion, a wave of madness, the devouring hand of fate, a dedication to God? Or all three together? Will a huge tidal wave drown the three bronze girls? What will be their fate? Art Nouveau (the motif of man versus nature), Japonism (the influence of Hokusai's print), an autobiographical element (madness taking over), sources of inspiration that Camus's talent shaped in her own way, evoking intense emotions in viewers.

Camus Claudel, The Hegel, Musée Dorsa. Source: Wikimedia, in the public domain

Another look at the work reveals that beneath the dragon's teeth that depict the crest of the wave, three niches have formed within it, each of which could embody the deathbed of the three girls. Just a moment ago they were playing on the beach and now it is their final battle.

Perseus and the Gorgon

Despite the progress of the disease that dried up Camus's sources of inspiration, the artist continued to exhibit until 1905. In the work “Perseus and the Gorgon” (Persée et la Gorgone), 1897-1902, the mythological expresses the personal. The Greek myth tells of the hero Perseus who cut off the head of Medusa. Athena turned the three charming sisters, the Gorgons, into monsters. She turned their golden curls into poisonous snakes and, as if that were not enough, she gave them wings. Their eyes turned all who looked at them to stone (perhaps Camus saw this as a metaphor for her talent as a sculptor, another reason to identify with Medusa).

Medusa, the younger sister, was mortal, unlike her two sisters. Perseus was tasked with killing her. To prevent himself from turning to stone, he was equipped with a shield that reflected her image. The scene of Perseus' victory in which he holds Medusa's severed head in one hand has already received many representations in the art of sculpture. Camus did not deviate sensationally from tradition this time.

The giant marble work, the only one of its size to be produced by Camus, was acquired by the Camus-Claudel Museum in 2009. In one hand, the victorious Perseus holds the Gorgon's head, with the snakes of her hair entwined around his arm, and in the other hand, he lacks the polished armor in which he saw the reflection of the monster's face in order to escape its gaze.

Camus's originality is expressed in the writhing, headless body of Medusa, at the feet of Perseus. The crossed hands seem to guard her efforts to protect her head. The viewer's gaze is drawn to her golden wings, which look like two stumps and thus correspond with the severed neck between them. Here too, as in the work "Old Age", the space, the empty circle created by the crossed hands where the head is missing, plays a role in the drama of the work.

In Camus's work, Perseus is Auguste Rodin, and at its head is a familiar Medusa, the sculptor who shapes her own face. The suffering Rodin inflicted on her is like an execution. This is a possible interpretation supported by the words of Camus's brother, Paul Claudel, who alluded in his introduction to the catalogue of the 1951 retrospective of Camus's works at the Rodin Museum to the similarity he recognized between the Gorgon's features and Camus's.

The work gives room for many interpretations, additional and different, but at “Le Nationale” (“The National,” short for “Salon of the National Society of Fine Arts,” Le Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux Arts), where it was exhibited in 1902, no one paid it any special attention, probably because of the formal classicist style in which it was designed.

Camille Claudel route in Paris

135 Boulevard du Montparnasse

This is where Camille Claudel lived with her mother, sister, and brother when they moved to Paris in 1881.

Académie Colarossi, 10, rue de la Grande-Chaumière

Here, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Montparnasse, founded by Italian sculptor Filippo Colurossi, Camus studied sculpture when she arrived in Paris. This academy, a replacement for the conservative Académie des Beaux-Arts, was one of the first to open its doors to women and allow them to work with nude models.

111, rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs

The family moved here in 1882.

177, rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs

Here Camus rented a sculpture studio with other sculptors, mostly English. Jessie Lipscomb, who rented a room in the family's apartment at 111, worked with her in the studio. The photograph taken by Jessie's husband commemorates the friendship between the two sculptors.

182 University Street

This is the address of the sculpture studio that was placed at Rodin’s disposal when he received the commission for “The Gates of Hell.” Rodin worked there until the end of his life. From 1884 to 1893, Camus collaborated with him there as a model, intern, assistant, muse, and lover.

31, boulevard de Port-Royal

Camus' family moved here in 1885.

68, boulevard d'Italie

In 1888, Rodin rented a beautiful, half-ruined château, built in the 18th century, as a residence for one of the king’s advisors, in the style of a Roman villa, “La Folie-Neubourg.” Neubourg was the advisor’s name, and Folie (“madness” in French) was the nickname for a “crazy” vacation home built for themselves by the wealthy of the 19th century.

Rodin rented the villa on the outskirts of the city to be used by him and Camus, exclusively, as a sculpture studio. The picturesque villa was photographed and painted by various artists before it was destroyed. Here is a photograph of it taken by Eugène Druet, a photographer and gallery owner known in Paris at the time, a friend of Rodin:

La Polly-Nebour, the villa that Rodin rented as a workshop for himself and Camus. Photo source: Camus-Claudel Museum

The villa was completely destroyed in 1909 and a watch shop now stands in its place.

113, boulevard d'Italie (actually boulevard Auguste-Blanqui)

Camus moved here, opposite the sculpture workshop. The lease was signed by Rodin. At the time, the street was called Boulevard Deteli, today it is Boulevard Auguste-Blanqui.

11, avenue de La Bourdonnais

This is where Camus rented an apartment in 1892.

63, rue de Turenne

Here, in order to finally distance herself from Rodin, Camus rented a sculpture workshop in 1898.

Grand hôtel de Jassaud, 19, quai Bourbon

Here, on the Île Saint-Louis, on the ground floor of the municipal estate of De Gesù, Camus rented a living apartment and sculpture studio in 1899. In 1913, she was evicted from the apartment and hospitalized.

The plaque dedicated to her reads:

In memory of the places. Camille Claudel, 1864-1943, sculptor, lived and worked in this building, on the ground floor facing the courtyard, from 1899 to 1913. On this date, her short career as an artist ended and the long night of hospitalization began.

“There is always something missing that torments me.” (Letter to Roden, 1886).

Galerie Eugène Blot, 5, boulevard de la Madeleine

Eugène Bleu, an important gallery owner and friend of the Impressionists, presented three solo exhibitions of her work in 1905, 1907, and 1908.

To the Camus Claudel Museum (about an hour from Paris)

To an article by Joel Tamanlis on the Camille Claudel Museum

To an article by Yoel Tamanlis about the Rodin Museum in Paris

To the article Dr. Orna Lieberman on the discovery of a copy of “Old Age” in an orphaned apartment in Paris