As I watched a FB reel1 about the life of French sculptor, Camille Claudel, I teared up. Hers is a tragic story. Claudel’s genius threatened the most powerful men of that time. Authors Assia Petricelli and Sergio Riccardi, write in the (just released) graphic novel, Troppo libera. The Art, Love, and Struggle of Camille Claudel, “Camille Claudel is among those women (but also men) who, despite possessing talent and determination, despite wanting intensely and I would say overwhelmingly, were defeated. Defeated by obstacles greater than themselves, by the inadequacy of their own time, by their own fragility . . .”
Camille Claudel (1864-1943) was a French sculptress working in bronze, marble, terracotta, and onyx. Her skill in sculpture was evident early on, and Claudel’s father moved her to Paris in 1882 so that she could study sculpture at L’Academie Colarossi, the only art school open to women at the time. When the famed sculptor Auguste Rodin began instructing at the school, the two started a personal and professional partnership in which Claudel’s contributions to Rodin’s sculptures went largely unacknowledged.
When Claudel struck on an independent career of her own, she was widely hailed as a genius, a fact made even more remarkable by the limitations imposed on her by the misogyny of the early 1900s. Furthermore, after her father’s death in 1913, Claudel’s mother and brother controversially committed her to the psychiatric institution of Ville-Évra in Neuilly-sur-Marne, due to their disapproval of her lifestyle, where Claudel spent the rest of her life.2 Paul was jealous of her genius.
In the asylum for 30 years, she wrote letters, desperate heartbreaking letters begging for someone, anyone, to come and free her, to see that she didn’t belong there, to recognize that her mind was brilliant, not broken. Doctors tried to convince Paul and their mother that Claudel did not need to be in the institution, but they still kept her there.
In 1914, to be safe from advancing German troops, Claudel was transferred with a number of other women, to the Montdevergues Asylum, at Montfavet, four miles from Avignon, in southern France. In 1943, she died there and was buried in a common grave. Camille’s brother was not present at her death or funeral.
Though Claudel destroyed much of her work, about 90 statues, sketches and drawings survive.One-and-a-half hours’ drive southeast of Paris, there is an entire museum dedicated to her work, in Nogent sur Seine, Claudel’s birthplace.
The 1988 film Camille Claudel, was a production of her life based largely on historical records. It starred Isabelle Adjani and Gerard Depardieu. In 1989, the film was nominated for two Academy Awards.4
In 2005, Sotheby’s sold a second edition La Valse, 1905, for $932,500. In a 2009 Paris auction, Le Dieu Envolé , had a high estimate of $180,000.5
1 https://www.facebook.com/reel/2064287134295279
2 https://www.turnercarrollgallery.com/artist-profiles/camille-claudel/
3 https://www.exporevue.com/magazine/fr/camille_claudel.html
4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Claudel#cite_note-exporevue.com-16
5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Claudel#cite_note-68
