Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel (Pegasus Library) [Hardcover]

J.A. Schmoll Eisenwerth (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pegasus Library | Publication Date: October 1994

The relationship between Camille Claudel and Auguste Rodin was one of the most artistically fruitful and passionate turn-of-the-century love affairs. When they first met in 1883, Rodin was forty-four and Claudel a promising sculptor of twenty. Despite the positive response of critics to her early work, Claudel, however, never experienced fame and success. The tragic circumstances of her life - the last thirty years were spent in a psychiatric hospital - have led to considerable speculation and interest in this enigmatic figure. To some she seemed to offer the classic example of a woman artist who was oppressed and abused by a successful man. This book examines Claudel's family background, her relationship to her parents and brother, and her behavior as documented by friends and family to determine to what extent her innate mental instability led to her eventual breakdown. What were the circumstances surrounding her commitment to an asylum and how did her family and Rodin react to her illness? Further, the author critically examines the relationship between the two artists: to what extent did they influence each other? How did Rodin really treat Claudel? Finally and most importantly, Claudel's oeuvre is investigated in terms of her biography and in relationship to her contemporaries in an attempt to evaluate her work as a sculptor and to understand the personal and artistic crisis she underwent after severing her relationship with Rodin.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Each of the attractively designed, compact, and well-illustrated hardcover books in this series deals with a specific facet of an artist's career. As with any series, the quality of the titles vary?though the translations from the German are all dotted with odd grammatical constructions and the occasional ambiguity. Sagner-Duchting's discussion of Claude Monet's work at Giverny is a good introduction to the artist's important contribution to Impressionism as well as a careful analysis of his great series of grain stacks and water lilies. Partsch focuses on Klimt's relationships with women?both as an artist and as a man?offering a good, detailed account of Klimt and Emilie Floge (a fashion designer and perhaps his true love). The one disappointment is the work on Rodin and Claudel. Schmoll is defensive about the attention and praise given sculptor Camille Claudel in recent years (often, admittedly, at the expense of Rodin). His portrayal of Claudel in this brief book is at times quite negative and at odds with the picture that has emerged from the work of Reine-Marie Paris (Camille Claudel, National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1990). The "Pegasus Library" aims to provide a focused study of one aspect of an artist's oeuvre in an inexpensive format. Previous subjects include Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, and Vasily Kandinsky (all LJ 11/1/94). Although individual titles may be of interest to libraries, the narrow focus and variations in quality make the series as a whole an optional purchase.?Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Prestel; illustrated edition edition (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3791313827
• ISBN-13: 978-3791313825
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,308,195 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An uninspired work that lacks insight., July 22, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Boston, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel (Pegasus Library) (Hardcover)

Schmoll has taken the party line on this piece and looks at every reason to discredit Claudel to the benefit of Rodin. Criticism of Claudel goes so far as to imply that her best works could have been touched up by Rodin. Schmoll even takes time to nitpick at Claudel's looks, pointing out that they were marred by a "weak" chin. From the beginning Schmoll compares the work of a young girl's in her 20's to that of a man in his 40's. It is one of the poorest critical studies of an artist that this reader has ever read.

4.0 out of 5 stars Sad story of passion and art, October 20, 2009

By 

C. Lippincott - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel (Pegasus Library) (Hardcover)

Camille Claudel was a brilliant sculptor and one of Rodin's proteges - and mistresses. She was obsessed by him - and about 25 years younger - and grew jealous when he would not give up his longtime lover. Gradually a pscyhotic tendencies appeared until she grew really mad and destroyed most of her work. Her last 30 years or so were spent in an asylum in France. Most people think she got a raw deal. Nowadays she would never have been incarcerated. Tragic story very well told here, with interesting photographs.

15 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars downgrading Claudel to a copy of Rodin, May 21, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Belgium, Europe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel (Pegasus Library) (Hardcover)

Camille Claudel was too genuine, too proud an artist to ever allow her work to be a copy of Rodin's. Who knows maybe it should be the other way: Rodin copying Claudel...