Camille Claudel

Sale: Claude Aguttes, Neuilly, 22 June 1999, lot 29

Acquired at the above sale

Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Claudel et Rodin, 2006, no.

Cécile Goldscheider, Camille Claudel, (exhibition catalogue) Musée Rodin, Paris, 1951, p. 15, no. 26, illustration of another cast

Henry Asselin, 'La vie artistique: Camille Claudel sculpteur (1864-1943),  Extinfor, Pages de France, no. 8239, 1951, p. 3, illustration of another cast

Bertrand Poirot-Delpech, 'Camille Claudel, sculpteur brisé',  Le Monde, July 2, 1982, p. 19, illustration of another cast

Anne Delbée, Une Femme, Paris, 1982, illustration of another cast

Anne Rivière, L'Interdite, Camille Claudel (1864-1943), Paris, 1983, p. 76, no. 23, illustration of another cast

Gérard Bouté, Camille Claudel. Le miroir et la nuit, Paris, 1995, pp. 146 & 148 (illustration of another cast  pp. 151-152).

François Duret-Robert, 'L'Affaire Claudel', in Connaissance des Arts, no. 523, décembre 1995, p. 115, illustration of another cast

Anne Rivière, Bruno Gaudichon & Danielle Ghanassia, Camille Claudel, catalogue raisonné, Paris, 1996, p. 116, no. 6b, illustration of another cast

Reine-Marie Paris, Camille Claudel re-trouvée, catalogue raisonné, Paris, 2000, pp. 338-343, illustration of another cast p. 342

Excellent condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Camille Claudel showed a precocious talent for sculpture – at an early age she would model figures out of clay, convincing her siblings to sit for her, and the family cook to fire the figures in the oven. Her father encouraged her talent and sought advice from Alfred Boucher, a native of Nogent-sur-Seine where the family was then based. The Claudel children moved with their mother to Paris in 1882, and Camille began her studies at the Académie Colarossi, as the École des Beaux-Arts did not yet admit women. In addition she practiced her art together with other female sculptors in a studio at 117, rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs. Alfred Boucher visited the studio every Friday to advise the students and correct their mistakes. In 1883 Boucher left Paris for an Italian tour and asked fellow sculptor Auguste Rodin to take over the classes. Claudel's work impressed the master and she joined his studio as a practicienne in 1885. She became Rodin's muse, lover and collaborator. The two artists worked closely together, referencing each other's sculpture in an extraordinary period of symbiotic creativity. The romantic relationship began to disintegrate in 1890 when Rodin refused to break with his long-term mistress, Rose Beuret, with whom he had lived since 1864. Claudel exhibited no sculpture during the following two years, perhaps due to the tensions of her personal life.

Claudel's L'Implorante is a figure taken from her masterpiece L'Age Mur (The Age of Maturity). The group depicts a young female figure kneeling in entreaty in front of a male figure led away by an old woman. The autobiographical references are obvious. Claudel's brother Paul later described the 'almost terrifying sincerity' of the group identifying the kneeling figure as 'My sister Camille. Imploring, humiliated, on her knees and naked.' The emotions betrayed in the group have a shocking authenticity and the figure of L'Implorante alone demands a visceral response. Like other female artists Claudel has audaciously harnessed the power of her own experience to highlight more universal themes. The extracted female figure was exhibited in 1894, before the entire group, in a variant of L'Implorante entitled Le Dieu envolé (The Vanished God). Abstracted from the group, the figure encompasses themes of loss and desperation as part of the human condition.