Editing Camille Claudel (section)

===''The Mature Age'' and other works===

[[File:Lâge mur (Musée Rodin) (4921654776).jpg|thumb|340px|''[[The Mature Age]]'', 1913 bronze casting in the Claudel room at the [[Musée Rodin]] in Paris. (The figure standing behind, ensnared in her own hair, is ''[[Clotho]]'', 1893)]]
[[File:Vertumnus and Pomona by Camille Claudel.jpg|thumb|upright|Claudel's [[Sakuntala (Claudel)|''Sakuntala'']], marble, 1888, (1905 copy shown, Musée Rodin, Paris)]]
[[File:Cloto.png|thumb|upright|''Clotho'', 1893]]
After Rodin saw Claudel's ''[[The Mature Age]]'' for the first time, in 1899, he reacted with shock and anger. He suddenly and completely stopped his support for Claudel. According to Ayral-Clause, Rodin might have put pressure on the ministry of fine arts to cancel the funding for the bronze commission.

''[[The Mature Age]]'' (1900) is usually interpreted as an allegory of the three stages of life: the man who represents Maturity is drawn into the hands of the old woman who represents Old Age and Death, while the young woman who represents Youth tries to save him.{{sfn|Ayral-Clause|2002|p=146}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Souter |first1=Janet |title=Camille Claudel |date=2011 |publisher=Parkstone International |isbn=9781781607008 |pages=82–83 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qd32AAAAQBAJ&pg=PT82}}</ref> Her brother interpreted it as an allegory of her break with Rodin. Angelo Caranfa comments that "The life that was, is, and will be in ''Maturity'' contains within its movement both the relentless movement of ''Clotho'' and the rhythmic, graceful, whirling movement of ''Fortune'', generating a single and sustaining movement or image out of the differences within" .{{sfn|Caranfa|1999|p=104-105}} According to Caranfa, ''Clotho'' (1893) and ''Fortune'' (1905) represent the two ideas of life: life in ''Clotho'' is portrayed as closed, hopeless existence and "consummated in an unending death"; life in ''Fortune'' is celebrated as the madness of eternal present with ups and downs, its "rapture or total harmony" (''Fortune'' itself is a variation of the dancing woman in ''The Waltz'').<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gindhart |first1=Maria P. |title=Exhibition review of "Camille Claudel Museum" |journal=Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide |date=Autumn 2017 |volume=Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 16, no. 2 (Autumn 2017) |url=http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/autumn17/gindhart-reviews-camille-claudel-museum |access-date=5 April 2019}}</ref>{{sfn|Caranfa|1999|p=104-105}}

One of Claudel's figures, ''The Implorer'', was produced as an edition of its own and has been interpreted not as purely autobiographical but as an even more powerful representation of change and purpose in the human condition.<ref>{{cite journal |quote=The different scales, the different modes of plasticity, and gender-representation, of the three figures which make up this important group, enable a more universal thematic and metaphoric stylistics related to the ages of existence, childhood, maturity, and the perspective of the transcendent |author=Angela Ryan |title=Camille Claudel: the Artist as Heroinic Rhetorician |journal=Irish Women's Studies Review |volume=8: Making a Difference: Women and the Creative Arts. |date=December 2002 |page=13–28}}</ref> Modelled for in 1898 and cast in 1905, Claudel didn't actually cast her own bronze for this work, but instead ''The Implorer'' was cast in Paris by Eugene Blot.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/207849 |title=The Implorer (L'Implorante) |website=Met Museum |access-date=2025-01-14}}</ref>

Claudel's masterful study of a young girl, ''La Petite Châtelaine,'' was completed in marble in 1895. Successive versions of ''La Petite Châtelaine'' demonstrate Claudel's talent for carving in marble, a skill Rodin himself did not have.<ref name="Peterson"/> ''La Petite Châtelaine'' stands alone as a portrayal of young girlhood in 19th-century sculpture; "there is no trace here of the pubescent figure with noticeable nipples or of the decorative, soft-cheeked cherub," Peterson observes.<ref name="Peterson"/>

In 1902 Claudel completed a large sculpture of ''[[Perseus and the Gorgon]]''. Beginning in 1903, she exhibited her works at the [[Société des Artistes Français|Salon des Artistes français]] or at the [[Salon d'Automne]].

''[[Sakuntala (Claudel)|Sakuntala]]'', 1888, is described by Angelo Caranfa as expressing Claudel's desire to reach the sacred, the fruit of the lifelong search of her artistic identity, free from Rodin's constraints. Caranfa suggests that Claudel's impressions of Rodin's deceptions and exploitation of her, as someone who could not become obedient as he wanted her to be and who was expected to conform to society's expectation of what women should be, were not false. Thus ''Sakuntala'' could be called a clear expression of her solitary existence and her inner search, her journey within.{{sfn |Caranfa |1999 |pp=27–28}}

In ''The Chatterboxes,'' Claudel depicted subject matter that was exceedingly rare in European sculpture at that time: "platonic female intimacy, not as an excuse to display a breast or a hip for the onlooker, but as women actually experience it."<ref name="Peterson"/> The sculpture shows a group of three women listening to a story told by a fourth companion. Tellingly, in an 1893 letter to her brother Paul, Claudel emphasized that ''The Chatterboxes'' was "no longer anything like Rodin."<ref name="Peterson"/>

Ayral-Clause says that even though Rodin clearly signed some of her works, he was not treating her as different because of her gender; artists at this time generally signed their apprentices' work.{{sfn |Vollmer |2007 |pp=75–76}} Others also criticise Rodin for not giving her the acknowledgment or support she deserved.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Axelrod|first1=Mark|title=Borges' Travel, Hemingway's Garage: Secret Histories|date=2004|publisher=University of Alabama Press|isbn=9781573661140|page=129|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XHt0J8d6U70C&pg=PA129}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Maisel|first1=Eric |last2=Gregory|first2=Danny |last3=Hellmuth|first3=Claudine |title=A Writer's Paris |date=5 October 2005 |publisher=Writer's Digest Books |isbn=9781582973593|page=81|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cJW6FP21gMYC&pg=PA81}}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Walker argues that most historians believe Rodin did what he could to help her after their separation, and that her destruction of her own oeuvre was partly responsible for the long-time neglect the art world showed her. Walker also says that what truly defeated Camille, who was already recognised as a leading sculptor by many, were the sheer difficulties of the medium and the market: sculpting was an expensive art, and she did not receive many official commissions because her style was highly unusual for the contemporary conservative tastes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Walker|first1=John Albert|title=Art and Artists on Screen|date=2010|publisher=John Albert Walker|isbn=9780954570255|page=124|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JZqvANuu91sC&pg=PA124}}</ref> Despite this, Le Cornec and Pollock believe she changed the history of arts.

Other authors write that it is still unclear how much Rodin influenced Claudel – and vice versa, how much credit has been taken away from her, or how much he was responsible for her woes. Most modern authors agree that she was an outstanding genius who, starting with wealth, beauty, iron will and a brilliant future even before meeting Rodin, was never rewarded and died in loneliness, poverty, and obscurity.<ref name="Reading for Results"/><ref name="The Natural Superiority of Women"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=A. Runco|first1=Mark |last2=R. Pritzker|first2=Steven |title=Encyclopedia of Creativity |date=2011 |publisher=Academic Press |isbn=9780123750389 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dI6mI7kg4O0C&pg=PT1027}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Zohrevandi|first1=Elaheh |last2=Allahyari|first2=Effat |last3=Jayakumar|first3=Kirthi |last4=Tarazona|first4=Katherine Vasquez |last5=Kumar|first5=Aanchal |last6=Reed|first6=Elsie |last7=Mohseni|first7=Fatemeh |last8=Barazandeh|first8=Hadi |last9=Aguas|first9=Lylin |last10=Hewitt|first10=Willow |last11=Brigneti|first11=Paola |title=DeltaWomen January 2012 Issue – Women Against The World |date=14 January 2012 |publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=9781471055973|page=4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ggGPAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA4}}{{self-published source|date=June 2020}}</ref>{{self-published inline|date=February 2020}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chilvers|first1=Ian |last2=Glaves-Smith|first2=John |title=A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art|date=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199239658|page=140|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mwf6RVGYLjgC&pg=PA140}}</ref> Others like Elsen, Matthews and Flemming suggest it was not Rodin, but her brother Paul who was jealous of her genius, and that he conspired with her mother, who never forgave her for her supposed immorality, to later ruin her and keep her confined to a mental hospital.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Elsen|first1=Albert E. |last2=Haas|first2=Walter A. |title=Rodin's Art : The Rodin Collection of Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center of Visual Arts at Stanford University: The Rodin Collection of Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center of Visual Arts at Stanford University |date=13 March 2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|isbn=9780198030614|page=[https://archive.org/details/rodinsartrodinco00else/page/306 306]|url=https://archive.org/details/rodinsartrodinco00else |url-access=registration |quote=claudel rodin jealousy.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Paris Tour Guide Top 5: Travel guide and tour as with the best local guide |date=2016 |publisher=WanderStories |isbn=9789949577132 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O3xLDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT500}}</ref>{{sfn|Flemming|2016|p=721}}{{Full citation needed|date=December 2019}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mathews|first1=Patricia Townley |title=Passionate Discontent: Creativity, Gender, and French Symbolist Art |date=1999|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226510187|pages=83–84|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zUe_iyI2EfUC&pg=PA83}}</ref> Kavaler-Adler notes that her younger sister Louise, who desired Camille's inheritance and was also jealous of her, was delighted at her sister's downfall.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kavaler-Adler|first1=Susan|title=The Creative Mystique: From Red Shoes Frenzy to Love and Creativity|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317795681|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2VAVAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA77}}</ref>

Less well known than her love affair with Rodin, the nature of her relationship with [[Claude Debussy]] has also been the object of much speculation. Stephen Barr reports that Debussy pursued her: it was unknown whether they ever became lovers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barr|first1=Stephen Anthony|last2=West Virginia University|title="Pleasure is the Law": Pelleas Et Melisande as Debussy's Decisive Shift Away from Wagnerism – DMA Research Project|date=2007|isbn=9780549439837|page=106|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h8jPYbGfFD0C&pg=PA106}}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> They both admired [[Edgar Degas|Degas]] and [[Hokusai]], and shared an interest in childhood and death themes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lockspeiser|first1=Edward|title=Debussy: Volume 1, 1862–1902: His Life and Mind|date=1978|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=9780521293419|page=183|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CY85AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA183}}</ref> When Claudel ended the relationship, Debussy wrote: "I weep for the disappearance of the Dream of this Dream." Debussy admired her as a great artist and kept a copy of ''[[The Waltz (Claudel)|The Waltz]]'' in his studio until his death. By thirty, Claudel's romantic life had ended.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Seroff|first1=Victor I.|title=Debussy; musician of France|date=1970|publisher=Books for Libraries Press|isbn=9780836980325|page=152}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Schierse Leonard|first1=Linda|title=Meeting the Madwoman: An Inner Challenge for Feminine Spirit|date=1994|publisher=Bantam Books|isbn=9780553373189|page=124}}</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:L62 - Musée Rodin - Camile Claudel - La Vague.JPG|''La Vague'' ("The Wave") (1897), exhibited in the Claudel room of the [[Musée Rodin]]
File:61 Cabeza de Camille Claudel con gorro frigio.jpg|''[[Head of Camille Claudel]]'', 1884, by [[Auguste Rodin]], portrays Claudel wearing a [[Phrygian cap]], on exhibit at the [[Museo Soumaya]]
File:Auguste Rodin par Camille Claudel (musée Rodin) (8026456955).jpg|Claudel's ''[[Bust of Auguste Rodin (Claudel)|Bust of Rodin]]'' (1888-89), in the Musée Rodin
</gallery>