43 Facts About Camille Claudel

Camille Rosalie Claudel was a French sculptor known for her figurative works in bronze and marble.

Camille Claudel 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.

Camille Claudel was born in Fere-en-Tardenois, Aisne, in northern France, the first child of a family of farmers and gentry.

The family moved to Villeneuve-sur-Fere while Camille Claudel was still a baby.

Camille Claudel's younger brother Paul Claudel was born there in 1868.

Boucher confirmed that Camille Claudel was a capable, talented artist and encouraged her family to support her study of sculpture.

Camille Claudel moved with her mother, brother, and younger sister to the Montparnasse area of Paris in 1881.

Camille Claudel was fascinated with stone and soil as a child, and as a young woman she studied at the Academie Colarossi, one of the few places open to female students.

Camille Claudel visited Frome and the families of her fellow sculptors.

Rodin and Camille Claudel met, and their artistic association and the tumultuous and passionate relationship soon began.

Camille Claudel started working in Rodin's workshop in 1883 and became a source of inspiration for him.

Camille Claudel acted as his model, his confidante, and his lover.

Camille Claudel never lived with Rodin, who was reluctant to end his 20-year relationship with Rose Beuret.

In 1892, after an abortion, Camille Claudel ended the intimate aspect of her relationship with Rodin, although they saw each other regularly until 1898.

Camille Claudel thus had to either depend on Rodin, or to collaborate with him and see him get the credit as the lionised figure of French sculpture.

Camille Claudel depended on him financially, especially after her loving and wealthy father's death, which allowed her mother and brother, who disapproved of her lifestyle, to maintain control of the family fortune and leave her to wander the streets dressed in beggars' clothing.

Camille Claudel's reputation survived not because of her once notorious association with Rodin, but because of her work.

Louis Vauxcelles states that Camille Claudel was the only sculptress on whose forehead shone the sign of genius like Berthe Morisot, the only well-known female painter of the century, and that Camille Claudel's style was more virile than many of her male colleagues'.

Camille Claudel's onyx and bronze small-scale La Vague was a conscious break in style from her Rodin period.

Camille Claudel's brother interpreted it as an allegory of her break with Rodin.

In 1902 Camille Claudel completed a large sculpture of Perseus and the Gorgon.

Walker says that what truly defeated Camille Claudel, who was already recognised as a leading sculptor by many, were the sheer difficulties of the medium and the market: sculpting was an expensive art, and she did not receive many official commissions because her style was highly unusual for the contemporary conservative tastes.

Camille Claudel destroyed many of her statues, disappeared for long periods of time, exhibited signs of paranoia and was diagnosed as having schizophrenia.

Camille Claudel accused Rodin of stealing her ideas and of leading a conspiracy to kill her.

Camille Claudel's father approved of her career choice, and he tried to help and support her financially.

Doctors tried to convince Paul and their mother that Camille Claudel did not need to be in the institution, but they still kept her there.

On 7 September 1914 Camille Claudel was transferred with a number of other women, to the Montdevergues Asylum, at Montfavet, six kilometres from Avignon.

Camille Claudel's mother forbade her to receive mail from anyone other than her brother.

The hospital staff regularly proposed to her family that Camille Claudel be released, but her mother adamantly refused each time.

Paul Camille Claudel visited his confined older sister seven times in 30 years, in 1913,1920,1925,1927,1933,1936, and 1943.

Camille Claudel always referred to her in the past tense.

Camille Claudel died on 19 October 1943, after having lived 30 years in the asylum at Montfavet.

Camille Claudel's sister did not make the journey to Montfavet.

Camille Claudel was interred in the cemetery of Montfavet, and eventually her remains were buried in a communal grave at the asylum.

Today his admirers pay homage to his memory at his noble grave; but of Camille Claudel there is not a trace.

In Villeneuve, a simple plaque reminds the curious visitor that Camille Claudel once lived there, but her remains are still in exile, somewhere, just a few steps away from the place where she was sequestered for thirty years.

The Musee Camille Claudel was opened in March, 2017, as a French national museum dedicated to Claudel's work.

Camille Claudel's response was a symbolic, intellectual style as opposed to the "expressive" approach normally attributed to women artists.

In 1951, Paul Camille Claudel organised an exhibition at the Musee Rodin, which continues to display her sculptures.

In 2005 a large art display featuring the works of Rodin and Camille Claudel was exhibited in Quebec City, and Detroit, Michigan, in the US.

The composer Frank Wildhorn and lyricist Nan Knighton's musical Camille Claudel was produced by Goodspeed Musicals at The Norma Terris Theatre in Chester, Connecticut in 2003.

The 1988 film Camille Claudel was a dramatisation of her life based largely on historical records.