She became a celebrity after her death, and many publications and films have been devoted to her life. She is Camille Claudel – the woman who inspired the great sculptor Rodin and remains in his shadow, although she is as talented as him and his worthy competition.
Camille Claudel in his studio
Her famous works – “Bronze Waltz” (“The Waltz”, 1893), “Maturity” (“The Age of Maturity”, 1894 – 1900) and “The Wave” (1897) are extremely impressive sculptures that rival the best examples of this art, including the works of her teacher, Auguste Rodin, the author of “The Thinker”.
“The Thinker” by Auguste Rodin
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Despite the ardent love between the two, Rodin lived for the rest of his life with another woman, denying Claudel the life she dreamed of as a woman. Camus literally gave him his youth, his hopes, his everything, and paid a high price – to die in a psychiatric clinic on October 19, 1943, eighty years ago.
Camille Claudel
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Auguste Rodin, as some sort of retribution upon him, died of hypothermia in his studio. “The hot ice on which he ‘bakes’ Camus, the coldness with which he responds to her burning desire to be together, dooms him to loneliness and cold. It seems fair!” says the actress Isabelle Adjani, who played the role of Camus in the film “Camus Claudel”.
Isabelle Adjani as Camille Claudel in Bruno Newiten’s Camille Claudel (1988)
The real Camille Claudel was born on December 8, 1864 in Ferre en Tardenois, France. Her father is a bank broker and her mother is an educated farmer’s daughter and a devout Catholic. Camius has a sister, Louisa, and a brother, Paul. Paul Claudel became a distinguished French poet and diplomat.
The family changed their place of residence several times until they settled in Noggen-sur-Seine, where the young Camille met the sculptor Alfred Boucher – her first teacher and mentor in this art.
Isabel Adjani and Gérard Depardieu as Claudel and Rodin in director Bruno Newiten’s Camille Claudel (1988)
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Despite his mother’s disapproval, in 1882 Camus persuaded her to move to Paris to continue his studies. Her mother could not imagine that her physically delicate and beautiful daughter wanted to become a sculptor – a job that not only seemed to her difficult and “unfeminine”, but also with a poor prospect of success in the face of male competition in this profession. Despite everything, in the end it is agreed that the two go to Paris.
Isabel Adjani and Gérard Depardieu as Claudel and Rodin in director Bruno Newiten’s Camille Claudel (1988)
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There, Camus studied sculpture at the Académie Colarossi under Alfred Boucher. A curious detail is that at that time, women were not allowed at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, so Camille was like an “attractive white crow” in the eyes of the professors. They were surprised that the young lady knew a lot of sculpture theory from her teenage years.
Auguste Rodin, photo by Nadar
In 1883, the significant first meeting of Camus with Auguste Rodin took place, who taught her sculpture. The very next year, she was already working in Rodin’s studio and helping him create some of his most famous works, while also creating her own works.
Bust of Auguste Rodin, by Camus Claudel, 1892
Feelings built on trust and passion arise between the two. Thus begins their stormy creative and intimate relationship.
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Camille Claudel became the sculptor’s muse and his model. However, he has been living with Roz Böre for years and does not want to leave her. He prefers their relationship with Claudel to remain “in the dark”. This interferes with her mental balance and also with her career. Critics see her as a “student of Rodin”, do not pay much attention to her personal signature in art. This upsets and discourages her.
Gérard Depardieu as Auguste Rodin in Bruno Newiten’s Camille Claudel (1988)
Camus slowly and painfully realizes that he lives in the shadow of Rodin’s life, and the only way to fly is to break away from him. But it can not. Conversations on this topic make Rodin nervous and worsen their relationship. With several separations and reunions, this relationship continued agonizingly until 1898.
Juliette Binoche in Bruno Dumont’s Camille Claudel 1915 (2013)
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Kamii finds the strength to break away from her lover and mentor, determined to become more independent not only in her personal life, but also in her work, but this costs her a lot of torment. Finally, when critics began to see her as an independent artist and a “female genius”, she again became depressed by the absence of Rodin in her life. With weak strength, in a feminine way, she tries to free herself from these thoughts, but she does not succeed.
Isabel Adjani and Gérard Depardieu as Claudel and Rodin in director Bruno Newiten’s Camille Claudel (1988)
“The Wave” (1897) is a small sculpture of onyx and bronze, but a big step for Camille Claudel – with it she shows the world that she is an original artist who has her own style, different from that of Rodin.
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Some say that her maturation as a person, recreated in her work “Maturity” (“The Age of Maturity”, 1900), is an effective allegory of her separation from Rodin. However, has she parted with her illusions of a possible joint happiness with him? – Unfortunately no. She needs a lot more strength to achieve this not only in her work, but also in her heart.
Isabel Adjani and Gérard Depardieu as Claudel and Rodin in director Bruno Newiten’s Camille Claudel (1988)
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From 1905 onwards, Camille Claudel fell into frequent periods of depression. Her mental state is shaken and visibly deteriorated in the eyes of her relatives. They worry about her because her seclusion escalates into aggression against Roden. She accuses her former love of scheming against her, which appears to everyone to be paranoia.
“The Waltz” by Camus Claudel, 1889 – 1905
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In a fit of rage, Camus destroys some of his works and isolates himself more and more from the world. Literally a week after her father’s funeral in March 1913, her brother placed her in a psychiatric clinic. He remained there for three decades, until his death in 1943. A cruel end for a woman with a gentle soul and incredible talent.
“The Wave” by Camus Claudel, 1897
Rodin has not been alive for a long time – he died in November 1917, four years after his Camius was placed in a clinic. And he died alone, frozen in his studio, after the French government refused to subsidize him with heating money.
A sad story, with a sad ending for both of them. And we, their admirers, today still admire the stone hugs in their works. But they also exuded coldness, even though the stone figures looked so delightfully beautiful and in love.
“Maturity” by Camille Claudel, 1898 – 1913, Musée d’Orsay, Paris
Although Camus Claudel destroyed many of her works, about 90 of her statues, sketches and drawings have been preserved. Eight years after her death, in 1951, her brother Paul organized an exhibition at the Roden Museum, where her sculptures are still on display. In 2008, the museum organized a retrospective exhibition with over 80 works by Camille Claudel.
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The 20th century was particularly curious not only about the work, but also about the life of the sculptor. Several biographies of her have been published, and in 1988 a film was made about her life – “Camille Claudel” with the participation of Isabelle Adjani, as already mentioned. The role of Rodin is played by the actor Gerard Depardieu. The film earned two Oscar nominations. In 2013, a second film about her life was released with the participation of Juliette Binoche.
Against the background of these films, for viewers, the bronze and marble figures of Camille Claudel seem even more sensual, but dark – like her life. And indeed, she is Rodin’s dark muse – his spurned but eternal and fatal love.
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She posed for him for “The Gates of Hell” and it seemed to really “open” them. When he moves his Parisian apartment near his teacher’s studio, Camus does not yet know what a “gate” of sin and despair their relationship will be. Even while the two are together, she is obsessed with Rodin’s injustice towards her. We judge from her letters that this feeling completely possessed her when they parted. She wrote in her letters that she was convinced he was trying to sabotage her career. Thus began the signs of her mental disorder.
“Vertumn and Pomona” by Camus Claudel, marble, 1905, Musée Rodin, Paris
“I am in no mood to be lied to any more than the master devil and false hero whose greatest pleasure is to take advantage of everyone,” wrote Camus. Consumed by her grief over him, she creates and then destroys her works.
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Her love inspires her and… kills her. But she remains “alive” in the cold stone in which she seals her painful fate. Camus never became rich from her works, and given the course of her life, she did not need wealth. That is why it seems so tragic against this background that during an auction in 2017 her works were sold for a total value of 3.6 million euros. The works were put up for auction by her family, by her heirs.
Today, her works are in the collections of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, etc.
A museum in honor of Camille Claudel was opened 75 years after her death in 2017 in her hometown. It is there that the relics of a fleetingly happy love, which gave birth to masterpieces and ended with the tragedy of heartache, are kept.
Still, she remains the Bronze Queen. An incredible woman who proved with her talent that women can also be genius sculptors.
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2023-10-21 17:55:18
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