Camille Claudel: biography, interesting facts, video

🙂 Greetings to regular and new readers! In the article “Camille Claudel: biography, interesting facts” – about the life of a French sculptor and graphic artist.

In history, it happened more than once that fate bred a famous couple in order to unite their names forever in the future. A lonely female silhouette will always loom near the giant figure of the sculptor Auguste Rodin – an echo of love and a mute reproach.

The Claudels were unlucky – they gave birth to two children, gifted by nature with frightening generosity. Madame Claudel cried not out of emotion, but out of fear. Is everything all right with his son Paul, if the boy dreams of knights and castles in reality?

The daughter never picked up toys. No one heard her chatter with her friends. The girl chose a secluded corner where she sculpts all sorts of things from clay, which is full in the ravines of provincial Villeneuve.

In Paris!

Ordinary girlish dreams had no power over Camille. Her peers asked their parents to marry, and she – to Paris to the school of fine arts. In the end, the parents, exhausted by their daughter’s persistence, agreed.

What Camilla looked like is known from the descriptions of her brother, who recalled the moment when she rushed towards her glorious and terrible fate. “High forehead over blue radiant eyes, sensual lips. Thick brown hair to the waist. She had audacity, straightforwardness, superiority and gaiety. “

Such a 20-year-old Claudel came to Paris in 1882. She had the same goal as many came here – to conquer the capital. She believed in her talent, in becoming a sculptor so much that she was not very upset when she found out that girls were not accepted to the School of Fine Arts.

At the closed doors, she was by no means the only one. Several more young ladies were pondering what to do next. And a solution was found: having formed, the girls were invited to study with them the then famous sculptor Alfred Boucher.

Claudel jumped ahead from the start. Her talent was evident that Monsieur Boucher decided to show her work to the director of the School, Paul Dubois.

He did not believe that these first student experiments belonged to the girl. There was a sharp masculine manner here. What energetic pictorial sculpting! Where has he seen this? Of course – at Rodin’s! Monsieur Dubois said so to Boucher: “Undoubtedly, your student studied with Rodin.”

Fateful encounter

The young student not only did not take lessons from Rodin, but she never even saw him. But the fateful meeting was approaching. Once Monsieur Boucher asked his good friend to replace him in the course.

Here he is the famous Auguste Rodin, sullen, big-nosed, dumpy and awkward. In this unfriendly man with a prickly gaze, in a baggy suit, it is impossible to guess a subtle, inspired connoisseur of youth. In front of a young female body, he was about to fall to his knees.

Claudel was serious and so busy with her work that Rodin did not know how to approach her. Her appearance worried him as an artist. He mentally freed her from a dark dress and an ugly long apron. How can you hide a body shining with youth and perfection in this scab!

It seemed that neither the fame of the famous maestro, nor his peculiar charm, under which many women fell, did not affect Camille. Gloomily and stubbornly, she demanded comments and advice from Rodin and listened to them without even looking at him.

He chose the only correct tactic with this spy. He treated Camille with emphasized respect, shared his concerns about his own work, and was in no hurry to pull off her monastic vestments.

Everything happened by itself … The girl, who recently did not even allow the thought to remain alone in the workshop with Rodin, not to mention letting him sculpt herself naked, surrendered unconditionally and completely.

He gently, without frightening her, coped with Camille’s girlish ignorance. And she, who knew no boundaries in anything, became attached to him with all passion and selflessness.

Of course, the same was expected of Rodin. He was to become her property, her absolute belonging, making an equal contribution to their love. Her first man took such an important place in her life that there was only room for creativity.

Rodin’s kiss

Claudel had no idea that she was a fragment for Auguste. A wonderful inspiration that brought him back to youth, but still a fragment. Behind him was a difficult life, and at home there was an aging woman who had grown into his fate so that, perhaps, he did not even notice her.

And also their common son, already a teenager, who, by habit, was called “little Auguste”. Auguste met Rosa at the very time when he had neither money, nor a roof over his head, nor a model, which he needed like bread. They were almost the same age.

But the thrifty, peasant grip of Rosa, who earned her food by sewing, still ensured her a tolerable life. At 24, Rodin was used to living half-starved, wearing clothes that made him look like a port laborer. In Rose, Auguste found a faithful, meek and hellishly patient soul.

She lurked like a mouse, knowing that at any moment anyone that comes to hand can be thrown at her. But the years passed, and Rosa, with her practical sense, began to understand more and more clearly her beneficial role in the life of the adored person.

Yes, to her, who could neither read nor write, not only for Rodin and his friends, but also for his graceful girlfriends, who were looking for the attention of a master who was slowly but surely entering glory. But whatever it was. Every evening he asks Rosa what they have for dinner.

Camilla … This is not at all what happened with Rodin with young beautiful women. In a mad admiration for her plastic body with classic proportions, he creates one of his masterpieces – “The Kiss”.

A young couple, a naked boy and a girl, clung to each other in a joyful outburst of youthful passion. In the world history of sculpture, there are not many examples of such a visible embodiment of earthly love, triumphant and eternal.

She posed alone. Rodin could not even imagine his young girlfriend next to someone else – even for the sake of holy art.

Two women

With the unerring instinct of a woman who knew her companion well, Rosa felt that this time she was in real danger. The wife descended upon Auguste’s abode suddenly. She never interfered in his affairs, and this phenomenon was like thunder.

Claudel was sweeping the floor at that moment, but, only looking at the woman who was trying to say something with trembling lips, she hid behind one of the sculptures.

When Rosa left, Camilla’s humiliation spilled over into a furious, frenzied stream of accusations against Rodin. What year they have been together! Isn’t it time for them to legitimize the relationship? Is this ridiculous old woman, who came running to spy on them, dearer to him than Camilla?

Worst of all, to Camille’s jealousy was added a different kind of torment. If as a woman she wanted to be called Madame Rodin, then as a sculptor she valued only her name. But to him, critics, the press, connoisseurs and art lovers, every now and then added – Auguste Rodin.

In 1888, Claudel finished her first major work, Oblivion. In him they immediately found a resemblance to the famous Rodin’s “The Kiss”. Offended to the depths of her soul for a hint of plagiarism, she takes on a new thing that cost her four years of her life.

But her “Waltz” is also spoken of as an imitation of the incomparable Rodin style, the fluidity of his sculptural forms, so reminiscent of the painting of the Impressionists.

Camille was furious. She may be Rodin’s mistress, his muse. But never – by his creative echo! Defending her independence, Claudel argued that she “extracts the plots for her works from her head and there is an excess of them.”

In fervor, wounded to the depths of her soul, she does not spare the feelings that connect her with Rodin, publicly accusing him of borrowing other people’s creative ideas.

And then the day has come when Camille Claudel closes the door of Rodin’s workshop, which has been the haven of their love for more than a decade. Perhaps she expected her departure to force Rodin to choose between two women. And he chose. Chose Rose.

Rise of creativity

For natures like Camilla, the saddest certainty is better than illusion. Rodin’s gigantic creative energy probably really overwhelmed her own. Confirmation of this is the rise of Camilla’s creativity, who at first forgot the bitterness of resentment and separation while working.

In 1895, she created one of the most powerful, expressive sculptural compositions “Mature age”. Its plot is tragic. The disgusting old woman, death, snatches her lover from the hands of a young girl.

The exceptional expressiveness of the images was appreciated this time. Encouraged, she created a second version of Mature Age three years later, in which death takes a man.

But Camille, who experienced the creative joy and satisfaction of the public’s recognition, was hit by a blow that she did not expect. She learned that Rodin was hindering the sale of her work to the state.

Life was desperately difficult for her. How not to recall the remark of one talented illustrious woman. “The main thing that I would give my child is good character.” This Camille, so generously gifted, was refused.

She made enemies with a rare skill, considering all people capable of inflicting harm on her only. The windows of her apartment were permanently shuttered. In the darkness, shut off from all the world, she worked more calmly.

Despite the dire need, half-starved, changed beyond recognition, she continued to sculpt. From under her numb fingers – there was no money for coal – amazing expressive things came out. In 1908, she created her Neobidu, the figure of a young girl mortally wounded by a poisoned arrow.

Camille Claudel’s last abode

But these creative victories were the last bursts of talent and will. The mind of Camilla, under the yoke of destructive thoughts, at times plunged into darkness. She was seen wandering aimlessly outside Rodin’s house. She shouted threats and shook her fists.

March 1913. From the house on the Rue de Bourbons, two orderlies took Camilla out and put her in an ambulance. Her relatives placed her in a psychiatric clinic on the outskirts of Paris. From where she was soon transferred to the so-called “orphanage”, that is, a real “psychiatric hospital” six kilometers from Avignon.

Monsieur Boucher put Rodin to shame. Why he, a famous, rich man, did not take any part in the fate of a woman he knew well. Rodin made the excuse that he once found buyers for Claudel’s work. He even wanted to arrange her exhibition, but she herself did not want it.

Meanwhile, the news of Camille, who had fallen into madness, agitated Rodin. He began to sculpt her bust, remembering the first time of their love, a young face with wide eyes.

Judging by the letters of Camilla, buried alive in a psychiatric hospital, she could in no way be ranked among the chronically, irrevocably insane people.

But neither brother Paul, who became a celebrity in France, poet, playwright, writer, living classic, nor all the numerous relatives, to whom Camilla could bring only one concern, did not need her.

Meanwhile, she really wanted to get out of her destructive confinement. “If I could return to normal life, I would always listen to your advice. I suffered for a very long time … ”(From a letter to my brother)

Only 12 years after the death of Camille Claudel, her relatives decided to inquire about the place of her burial. They were told that “a part of the cemetery territory was used for other needs and there is no grave.”

In January 1917, 50 years after the birth of his son, 77-year-old Auguste Rodin married Rosa Bere. She passed away two months later.

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