It’s an incredible story. The story of a valuable sculpture, lost for years. That of a forgotten work in Baudouvin’s garden: the wounded Niobide, by Camille Claudel.
In 1906, the collaborator of Auguste Rodin was far from having her current fame when the State asked her to create a sculpture. This will be the only public order she will receive, says Isabelle Bourgeois, project manager for the development of the Baudouvin estate: “She delivered it in 1907. First there was a plaster which went to Algeria, to the Bougie museum (today Béjaïa, Editor’s note)while a bronze will be attributed much later, by deposit, to the maritime prefecture of Toulon.”
A woman hit in the chest
The work is not immense. 80 to 90 centimeters, at most. Echoing Greco-Roman mythology, it represents a woman hit in the chest, dying. And so it was in 1935 that she arrived in the harbor. At the time, the Baudouvin garden was still the property of Baron Henri de Rothschild. But eleven years later, it was the vice-admiral of the prefecture who established himself there as part of his duties. “This Valletta location became the residence of the maritime prefect. It remained so until 1986,” adds Isabelle Bourgeois.
Found in poor condition
From 1946, the bronze print included the splendid gardens… Before getting lost there for many years. “In 1984, Anne Rivière, the great specialist on Camille Claudel, decided to organize a major retrospective of the work. But she realized that no one really knew what had become of La Niobide Injure.” The historian first turns to the maritime prefecture. No information.
It is through her investigations that she goes back to Valletta and Baudouvin. On site, in the small pool of the cleanliness garden, she found the work she was looking for. Claudel’s creation is there, lost in the middle of the vegetation, in pitiful condition. Grass has grown all around. “It’s something completely crazy. I can’t imagine Anne Rivière’s emotion when she discovered this,” says Isabelle Bourgeois. After spending almost fifty years in the Var, including almost forty in Valletta, this “big treasure” leaves the department through the back door, in order to be restored.
Since then, it has been exhibited at the Sainte-Croix museum in Poitiers. “Even if the sculpture had remained here, I don’t think it could have been preserved,” notes the project manager. This Sunday, September 24, on the occasion of Autumn Day, a work relating to the wounded Niobide will be presented to the Valletta public, in the remarkable Baudouvin garden. Named “Déliment” and made with soap by Frédérique Nalbandian, it will, almost forty years later, provide a nod to the forgotten sculpture.
The Poitiers museum recently agreed to the exceptional loan of several works by Camille Claudel. The injured Niobide is one of them. It will soon be included in an exhibition dedicated to the artist, taking place in Chicago.
