Camille Claudel

Sale: Maître Ofer, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 8th December 1972
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Henry Asselin, ‘La vie artistique: Camille Claudel sculpteur, 1964-1943’, Extinfor, Pages de France, no. 8239, 1951, p. 3
Cécile Goldscheider, Camille Claudel (exhibition catalogue), Paris, Musée Rodin, 1951, no. 26, illustration of another cast p. 15
Anne Delbée, Une Femme, Paris, 1982, illustration of another cast
Bertrand Poirot-Delpech, ‘Camille Claudel, sculpteur brisé’, Le Monde, 2nd July 1982, p. 19
Anne Rivière, L’Interdite. Camille Claudel 1864-1943, Paris, 1983, no. 23, illustration of another cast  p. 76
Camille Claudel (1864-1943) (exhibition catalogue), Paris, Musée Rodin & Poitiers, Musée Sainte-Croix, 1984, no. 20b, illustration of another cast pp. 56-57
Reine-Marie Paris, Camille Claudel, 1984, illustration of another cast  p. 362-363
Camille Claudel-Auguste Rodin (exhibition catalogue), Bern, Kunstmuseum, 1985, no. 51
Camille Claudel (exhibition catalogue), Washington DC, National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1988, no. 27, p. 60, illustration of another cast p. 23
Reine Marie Paris, Camille Claudel, Paris, 1988, illustration of another cast pp. 274-275
Camille Claudel 1864-1943 (exhibition catalogue), Paris, Galerie H. Odermatt-Ph. Cazeau, 1988-89, no. 3, illustration of another cast
Camille Claudel (exhibition catalogue), Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 1990-91, no. 69, illustration of another cast p. 107
Camille Claudel (exhibition catalogue), Paris, Musée Rodin, 1991, no. 73, illustration of another cast
Camille Claudel (exhibition catalogue), Morlaix, Musée des Jacobins, 1993,  illustration of another cast p. 52
Camille Claudel (exhibition catalogue), Hong Kong-Taipei-Seoul, 1993, no. 1, illustration of another cast pp. 30-31
Camille Claudel (exhibition catalogue), Luxembourg, Cercle Municipal, 1995, no. 36, illustration of another cast
Gérard Bouté, Camille Claudel. Le Miroir et la nuit, Paris, 1995,  illustration of another cast pp. 146, 148, 151-152
François Duret-Robert, ‘L’Affaire Claudel’, in Connaissance des Arts, no. 523, 1995,  illustration of another cast p. 115
Anne Rivière, Bruno Gaudichon & Danielle Ghanassia, Camille Claudel. Catalogue raisonné, Paris, 1996, no. 43.6b,  illustration of another cast pp. 116-117
Camille Claudel (exhibition catalogue), Mexico City,  Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, 1997, p. 98, illustration of another cast p. 99
Camille Claudel (exhibition catalogue), São Paolo, Pinacoteca do Estado, 1997, no. 33, pp. 148-150, illustration of another cast p. 151
Anne Rivière, Bruno Gaudichon, Danielle Ghanassia, Camille Claudel. Catalogue raisonné, Paris, 2001, no. 44.9, illustration of another cast p. 141

Attractive brown-red patina, some dust in the crevices and minor scuffs, consistent with age and handling. A 2cm scratch along her left upper arm, minor surface scratch to the sitters left jaw, a patch of patina loss above her right thigh. Otherwise this work is in overall good 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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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."

Even when separated from the trio of figures for which she was originally conceived (L’Âge Mûr), Camille’s Claudel’s l’Implorante remains an extraordinarily evocative figure of sorrow and abandonment. The last decade of the nineteenth century was the period when Claudel was at her zenith, having mastered her considerable skill under the tuition of first Alfred Boucher and then Auguste Rodin, with whom she shared a personal and professional relationship which proved to be both instrumental and destructive for Claudel in equal measure. In November 1898, the French state had engaged Claudel with the objective of commissioning a work in bronze, and by the summer of 1899, a plaster of L’Âge Mûr was exhibited at the Société National des Beaux Arts and then later at the Universal Exposition in 1900. However, the commission for the bronze never arrived. Claudel was acutely aware that her career henceforth was going to be limited by the influence of the establishment, who held both the power and the purse strings. It was a feeling of vulnerability that would continue to plague her throughout her life, and ultimately became such an intense paranoia that she became increasingly reclusive and mentally unwell.

In light of the events of her personal life, and the unhappy end to her relationship with her mentor, an autobiographical reading of L’Implorante is almost unavoidable. In L’Âge Mûr, the figures lend themselves to associations with Rodin and the mistress he refused to leave, Rose Beuret, with whom he had lived since 1864, much to the distress of Claudel. As the old crone-like woman leads the male figure away, he lets the hand of the pleading kneeling young woman at his feet slip from his. When the piece was first exhibited, it was interpreted as a symbolic representation of destiny, with an ageing man being torn away from love, youth and life, and the association of the scene with the events in her own life were not made by outsiders until much later. However, the existence of L’Implorante a sculpture in its own right suggests that it was this figure, this vision of despair and longing, which was integral to the tableaux, not the angel of fate. The female, now alone, is fixed in the same position, but now reaches for something that has vanished entirely. Claudel displays her mastery of sculptural balance, the arms reaching out beyond the confines of the base, right knee bent forward to maximise her reach. Much like in Rodin’s Prodigal Son, the figure reaches for something which is not only unattainable but actually not there focuses the attention not on the action but on the emotional desperation of the gesture. If this work is indeed a self-portrait, it is one which has, as Claudel’s brother Paul first described it, an ‘almost terrifying sincerity’.