Camille Claudel (1864–1943) is an outstanding French sculptor. If her fate had been different, perhaps she would have surpassed Auguste Rodin himself. From their difficult relationship, we are left with the famous "Kiss".
The childhood of the future woman sculptor Camille Claudel passed in the strict atmosphere of a provincial petty-bourgeois family. Then a great love happened in her life, and then an insane disappointment. The creative path was cut short by the blows of fate. One day she will end up in a psychiatric hospital and spend 30 years in it.
1864-1876 Camille Claudel's early childhood in a provincial bourgeois family
Camille's father Louis-Prosper Claudel served in the real estate industry. Mother Louise Athanis Cecile Servo was in charge of the household. The Claudels had four children, but the firstborn, Henri, died at an early age.
Camille was released on December 8, 1864 in a small town in the north of France Fer-en-Tardenois. After a year, the younger sister Louise appeared there, and two more years later, brother Paul in Villeneuve-sur-Ferrat, where the family moved to the house inherited by Camille's mother.
Louise, having matured, became a wife and mother, Paul - a poet, playwright and the greatest religious writer of the 20th century. An unknown force attracted Camille to sculpting. As a result, she learned to do what she aspired to from early childhood.
Driven by enthusiasm, she took her younger brother with her on walks in the neighborhood and on clay hikes. The children brought her home, cleaned her, kneaded her, and Camilla sculpted her family members, who had to be her sitters. Paul especially often posed for her, the difference with whom at 4 years was not an obstacle to their close friendship.
Nobody taught her to sculpt. Before everything that she did, she thought of herself. Camilla read a lot, especially zealously studied the books of ancient authors from her father's library. Reading helped her raise her cultural level so high that many years later the girl will easily communicate in the circle of Parisian intellectuals.
In 1876, Louis-Prosper Claudel was transferred to the service and the family moved to Nogent-sur-Seine. Here the first fateful meeting for Camilla takes place: the girl's father decided to consult with the sculptor Alfred Boucher, who came to the city to visit his parents, about his 12-year-old daughter's passion for sculpting. The works of the child-nugget made a strong impression on the master. He immediately realized that he had a huge talent in front of him requiring development.
1881-1885 Arrival in Paris and meeting of Camille Claudel with Auguste Rodin
In the spring of 1881, Camilla's father was transferred to Rambouillet. He moved there, and sent his wife and children to Paris. Louis-Prosper had a bad temper and a domineering nature, he was not distinguished by tenderness in dealing with his children. However, Louis dreamed of their good education and was sympathetic to Camille's hobby. In addition, he listened to the authoritative opinion of Alfred Boucher about the need to teach his daughter the sculptural skill. The next stage in the life of Camille Claudel began.
In those days, it was forbidden to admit women to the Academy of Arts, so Camilla entered the private art school of Colarossi. Teaming up with three more girls, she rents a room for a workshop. Alfred Boucher oversees their work. She is especially interested in the young talent Camille.
Once Alfred Boucher invited the head of the School of Fine Arts Paul Dubois to look at the work of his ward. The unconventional and rather mature sculptures of the young artist surprised the experienced sculptor, and he asked her: "Do you learn from Monsieur Rodin?" At that time, this was not a big compliment, because star Auguste Rodin has not yet ascended to its proper height. Interestingly, Dubois caught the similarity of the creative vision of these two artists.
At that time, Camilla did not know anything about Rodin, but it soon turned out that they not only met, but became close. Alfred Boucher in 1882 received the gold medal of the Salon and the prize - a study trip to Florence. During his absence, he asked Ogyut Rodin to replace him in the girls' workshop and take a closer look at the works of Camilla. So she turned out to be a student of Rodin. This was the next decisive turn in her life.
In addition to the fact that Camilla was distinguished by her male occupation, perseverance and temperament, she possessed a rare beauty. Auguste Renoir could not help but notice either her work or herself.
In 1884 she entered Rodin's workshop as a student and assistant. Camilla becomes his most talented pupil, beloved model, and after a while, beloved woman and muse, stirring up his creative and male imagination.
During this period, Rodin carried out an order from the Department of Fine Arts to create a portal for the future Museum of Decorative Arts and was completely absorbed in the composition "The Gates of Hell". Camilla came in handy. She not only poses, Rodin entrusts her to sculpt complex details - the legs and arms of some characters. This speaks of his recognition of her grand talent and skill.
1886 - 1893 Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel, a time of stormy love and passionate artistic dialogue
This was the period when he and Auguste Rodin were closest to each other as lovers and as two sculptors. The age difference of almost 25 years did not affect their relationship. Each received from the other something necessary for himself. Although Camille by the time of her meeting with Rodin can be considered a fully developed master, she receives new knowledge and skills from an experienced sculptor, reveals herself to the full force of her talent.
According to the editor of the newspaper "Le Temps" Mathias Morchardt, in turn, Rodin had the "happiness of being always understood" and that this is "one of the greatest joys of his creative life." During the period of close ties with Camilla, Rodin created magnificent sculptures depicting moments of sensual love, a manifestation of an all-consuming passion between a man and a woman. Rodin himself said that you need to look at them through tears of emotion.
Rodin's popularity is growing. He moves in the upper strata of society, accompanied by Camille Claudel. A young, beautiful, educated companion suits him more than Rosa Børe, a woman with whom he has lived without marriage since 1864. Both women did not immediately recognize each other's existence.
When the secret becomes clear, the situation escalates. Each of the women claims to be the main and only one. Camille tries to weaken her attraction to Rodin and his influence on her as a creator. In the spring of 1986 she leaves for England. Rodin misses her and looks forward to her return. On October 12 of the same year, she makes him sign a contract, according to which he, in particular, undertakes to marry her. The contract was not executed.
Their stormy connection continues. Rodin rents a studio in La Folie-Neubourg for the workshop in which he and Camilla work with passion and where their love dates take place. But by 1892, their relationship was falling apart.
1893-1908 Camille Claudel's creative years alone
In 1993, Camilla already works alone. She rents premises for her own workshop and delves into independent work. With Auguste Rodin, they still communicate over the next five years, but then from her side follows a complete alienation. She not only ends love relationships, but also strives for complete independence from him in art. She tries to prove her individuality, she is annoyed by any comparison with Rodin, even laudatory ones.
Always hardy and hard-working, Camilla is full of ideas and constantly sculpts her sculptures. Her works are exhibited at exhibitions and are successful. But large orders are not being received. The financial situation is deteriorating. She becomes poorer and more and more withdrawn.
In July 1995, Claudel receives his first order from the state and begins to make a sculptural group "Mature age". For some unclear reason, the work was not redeemed. The plot is most often associated with her personal drama: Kneeling Camilla desperately tries to keep Rodin, who is carried away by the elderly Rosa Børe. Maybe so, or maybe Camilla put a much deeper philosophical meaning into this scene: a person cannot remain forever young, he is forced to move away from his beautiful youth and approach old age and death, no matter how much he wants otherwise.
Camille moved away from Auguste, but did not stop thinking about him. Thoughts about Rodin were constantly spinning in her head and, it seems, never left her now. She blamed him for all her troubles, believed that Rodin was not only unfair to her, but also invariably hurting, stealing her ideas and works, hired a whole gang in order to endlessly persecute her.
There were no close people next to Camilla at such a difficult time for her. She was left all alone in confusion and fear. Mother and sister condemned her for an indecent relationship with Rodin, did not want to communicate with her and were very far from art. Beloved brother Paul went far away to China in his service. The father tried to help his daughter financially, but he could not move away from her the crisis that was suffocating her mind.
In moments of rage, dissatisfaction with her work, or for other reasons known only to her, she in a fury smashed her creations and threw wax blanks into the fire.
1909-1943 Imprisonment forever
Mathias Morehardt believed that Camille's first manifestations of mental disorder appeared around 1893, when she left Rodin. By 1911, her condition is clearly too alarming. She leads a secluded life, isolating herself from the environment. Doesn't leave the house. The workshop is in chaos and dirt reigns, she is panicked by the horror of the persecution by the "Rodin gang", from which she hides in her workshop.
Self-isolation ended for Camille Claudel with isolation forever.
The events of March 1913 developed rapidly. On March 3, a father dies in Villeneuve-sur-Feret, whose death is not reported to Camille. On March 7, at the initiative of the Claudel family, Dr. Michaud writes out a medical report on Camille's delusional psychosis, which becomes the basis for her involuntary hospitalization. On March 10, strong orderlies enter Camilla's workshop and, overcoming the resistance of a fragile woman, take her to a psychiatric hospital. Camille Claudel is 48 years old at the time.
She will die at 78 in the Mondewergue psychiatric hospital in the town of Vaucluse on October 19, 1943. Mother and sister never visited her. Camilla survived both of them: her mother died in 1929, her younger sister in 1935. Beloved brother Paul visited Camilla 10-12 times, his last visit took place a month before her departure. The remains of Camille Claudel are buried in a common grave in the Monfavet cemetery.
There was no positive response to Camilla's requests to her relatives to release her from the psychiatric confinement. It's hard to say why.
The dramatic story of the fate of a woman sculptor served as a plot for the creation of feature films. In 1988, the film Camille Claudel was shot, in which Camille was played by Isabelle Adjani, and Auguste Rodin by Gerer Depardieu. In 2013, the film Camille Claudel 1915 was released, starring Juliette Binoche.
The works of the sculptor Camille Claudel are exhibited at the Musée Rodin in Paris and in her own museum, created in Nogent-sur-Seine in March 2017. Claudel, who could not get out of Rodin's shadow during her lifetime, receives belated recognition for her and takes her own place on the high pedestal of art.
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