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Today, The Grandma has been reading about Camille Claudel, the French sculptor, who was born on a day like today in 1864.
Camille Rosalie Claudel (8 December 1864-19 October 1943) was a French sculptor known for her figurative works in bronze and marble.
She died in relative obscurity, but later gained recognition for the originality and quality of her work.
The subject of several biographies and films, Claudel is well known for her sculptures including The Waltz and The Mature Age.
The national Camille Claudel Museum in Nogent-sur-Seine opened in 2017.
Claudel was a longtime associate of sculptor Auguste Rodin, and the Musée Rodin in Paris has a room dedicated to her works. Sculptures created by Claudel are also held in the collections of several major museums including the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
More information: Musée Camille Claudel
Camille Claudel was born in Fère-en-Tardenois, Aisne, in northern France, the first child of a family of farmers and gentry. Her father, Louis-Prosper Claudel, dealt in mortgages and bank transactions. Her mother, the former Louise-Athanaïse Cécile Cerveaux, came from a Champagne family of Catholic farmers and priests.
The family moved to Villeneuve-sur-Fère while Camille was still a baby. Her younger brother Paul Claudel was born there in 1868. Subsequently, they moved to Bar-le-Duc (1870), Nogent-sur-Seine (1876), and Wassy-sur-Blaise (1879), although they continued to spend summers in Villeneuve-sur-Fère, and the stark landscape of that region made a deep impression on the children.
From the ages of 5 to 12, Claudel was educated by the Sisters of Christian Doctrine. While living in Nogent-sur-Seine at age 12, Claudel began working with the local clay, regularly sculpting the human form.
As Camille grew older, she enriched her artistic education with literature and old engravings.
Her mother Louise did not approve of Claudel's unladylike desire to become an artist. Her father was more supportive and took examples of her artwork to their artist neighbor Alfred Boucher, to assess her abilities. Boucher confirmed that Claudel was a capable, talented artist and encouraged her family to support her study of sculpture.
More information: The Art Story
Camille moved with her mother, brother, and younger sister to the Montparnasse area of Paris in 1881. Her father remained behind, working to support them.
Claudel was fascinated with stone and soil as a child, and as a young woman she studied at the Académie Colarossi, one of the few places open to female students. Once in Paris, she studied with sculptor Alfred Boucher. The Académie Colarossi was more progressive than other arts institutions in that it not only allowed female students at the school but also permitted them to work from nude male models. At the time, the École des Beaux-Arts barred women from enrolling to study.
Claudel started working in Rodin's workshop in 1883 and became a source of inspiration for him. She acted as his model, his confidante, and his lover. She never lived with Rodin, who was reluctant to end his 20-year relationship with Rose Beuret.
After 1905, Claudel appeared to be mentally ill. She destroyed many of her statues, disappeared for long periods of time, exhibited signs of paranoia and was diagnosed as having schizophrenia. She accused Rodin of stealing her ideas and of leading a conspiracy to kill her.
Though she destroyed much of her work, about 90 statues, sketches and drawings survive. She was at first censored as she portrayed sexuality in her work. Her response was a symbolic, intellectual style as opposed to the expressive approach normally attributed to women artists.
More information: Art in Context
What was the point of working so hard and of being talented,
to be rewarded like this?
Never a penny, tormented all my life.
It is horrible; one cannot imagine it.
Camille Claudel
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