Camille Claudel

Overall the condition of the bronze is excellent. With some minor wear to the patina consistent with age. The original casting joints at both upper arms are slightly visible, with a visible casting pin to her proper left arm. The original casting joint around her knees on the base are also slightly visible.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE 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 were 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 practised 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.

L'Implorante was edited by the founder Eugène Blot in 1905. Often seen in the original size (62cm) and a reduction (28.5cm) the present bronze is in a very rare variant between the two (32cm). It is an exceptionally fine cast.

This bronze has been authenticated by Danielle Ghanassia, and is sold togetehr with her certificate. She has proposed that this is the bronze, numbered 2, mentioned by Eugène Blot in a letter to Leblanc-Barbedienne in 1936.   

RELATED LITERATURE
Claudel, pp. 51-62; Paris & Chapelle, no. 43, p. 166; Rivière et al., nos. 44-49, p. 143; Laurent & Gaudichon, pp. 15-22, 56-58, nos. 20a & b