CAMILLE CLAUDEL: A Life [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Odile Ayral-Clause (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2002

Camille Claudel (1864-1943) was a gifted 19th-century French sculptor who worked for Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), became his lover, and eventually left him to gain recognition for herself in the art world. After she crumbled under the combined weight of social reproof, deprivations, and art world prejudices, her family had her committed to an asylum, where she died 30 years later. Although Claudel's life has been romanticized in print and on film, a fully researched biography has never been written until this one. The book draws upon much unpublished material, including letters and photographs that confirm the brilliance of her sculpture, clarify her relationship with Rodin (who did not exploit her, but, in fact, supported her work throughout his life), and reveal the true story of her confinement in a mental institution. Claudel's fascinating life touches many aspects of women's issues: creativity, struggle for recognition, conflict with social values, and art world inequities. Illustrated with personal family photographs, this is an intimate and moving tribute to an artist whose life and work have, until now, been misinterpreted and undervalued.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

French sculptor Claudel (1864-1943) is best known for her love affair with fellow artist Auguste Rodin, the basis for a late '80s French film starring Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani. Ayral-Clause, a professor of French and the humanities at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, cites original documents and other research to argue that although Rodin is usually depicted as having abandoned a wimpy Camille, in fact Camille was so feisty and in-your-face (a necessity for a woman artist in a man's world) that he wound up running for cover to escape her "insults" once their 15-year-long affair was over. Camille went mad and spent her last 30 years in an asylum. Ayral-Clause's account of these events is clear, although sometimes marred by an artificial prose style with odd syntax: "Events that are denied at the time they occur are often brought back to life through letters or journals discovered later on." Art history students may be disappointed by the generalized comments about Claudel's artworks themselves (shown, along with photos, in 69 b&w illustrations), since the woman, rather than the artist, is in the limelight in this biography. By contrast, Ayral-Clause fully accepts Rodin as a great artist and great man, reserving criticism for Camille's brother, the far-right-wing poet and diplomat Paul Claudel, who ensured she was buried in a common grave for paupers despite the family's great wealth.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Having enjoyed unprecedented access to family archives, photographs, and medical records, Claudel specialist Ayral-Clause (French and the humanities, California Polytechnic State Univ.) offers a fascinating account of the artist while also recording much important minutiae. This is intrinsically a life story; Ayral-Clause concentrates on biographical research, providing fresh information on Claudel's career and relationship with Rodin, for instance, while mentioning Claudel's artwork only secondarily. For virtually her entire life, Claudel was protected by Rodin, her teacher and lover by whom she became pregnant. Yet she was always suspicious of Rodin, and her suspicion intensified with age. Included here are numerous Rodin letters and conversations with politicians, writers, and critics. However, it is the examination of Claudel's later years in mental asylums that makes this book the first fully researched biography of the artist. Reine-Marie Paris's Camille: The Life of Camille Caudel, Rodin's Muse and Mistress (1988) is out of date, and the existing play, film, and multitudes of exhibition catalogs tend to mythologize Claudel. Ayral-Clause commands much new data and an admirable objectivity. Highly recommended. Mary Bruce, Cutler Memorial P.L., Plainfield, VT
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; illustrated edition edition (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810940779
• ISBN-13: 978-0810940772
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #458,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AT LAST, A TRIBUTE TO THIS GREAT ARTIST!, April 8, 2002

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: CAMILLE CLAUDEL: A Life (Hardcover)

After gaining access to previously unpublished materials, private letters, and medical documents the author presents the first factual in-depth portrait of the woman who has been known primarily as the lover of the renowned sculptor Auguste Rodin. Camille Claudel was so much more than that.

A gifted artist in her own right she fought for recognition in a 19th century Parisian art world that refused her acceptance. There were, of course, critics who recognized her gifts but their comments always contained dismissive remarks, underscoring the pervasive bias against women.

Twenty-four years younger than Rodin, Claudel's relationship with the vaunted master grew from apprentice to equal to romantic entanglement. Regrettably, Claudel's mental health was fragile. Following the creation of a statue in 1907 she took a hammer and destroyed all her subsequent work. According to the author, this was "both a form of sacrifice and an act of rebellion against the world."

Sinking deeper into paranoia and delusion, she became an embarrassment to her family and the subject of city-wide gossip. After the death of her father, who wished to rally to her aid, Claudel's mother had her committed to an asylum, the first of two in which she would spend her last 30 years.

This is a heartrending story, a tribute to a great artist, and an important contribution to the annals of art history.

- Gail Cooke

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life.....If You Could Call It That!, October 26, 2004

By 

V. Marshall (North Fork, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: CAMILLE CLAUDEL: A Life (Hardcover)

Camille Claudel was an amazing Parisian sculptress who lived far before time was good to her and this biography does her justice...finally!

Born in 1864, Camille Claudel grew up with an ambition un-worthy of her sexual status. She held within her being an artistic fire that was only extinguished by supposed madness. I have the feeling that had this woman been alive today her art and her spirit would thrive. But during the 19th century women were still meant to be barefoot and pregnant with no ambition other than being a wife and mother. Claudel struggled to represent her art and her spirit was destroyed by those she loved the most. She fought against a mother who wanted to keep her quiet and reserved, she defied her brother's idealistic religious beliefs and she competed against the world renowned artiste, Auguste Rodin. Despite the odds against her she created many works of pure and exquisite beauty proving that women could surpass men if given a chance. But because of her spirited talent she was eventually relegated to a hospital for the insane due to her inability to deal with the pressures of a love not returned (with Rodin), financial ruin and a lack of respect for her hard honed works.

Camille Claudel captured the struggles of love, aging and sexism in her famous sculptures: Jeune Fille a la Gerbe (1887), Giganti (1886), Vertumme et Pomone (1905), La Valse (1905), Clotho (1893), L'Implorante (1894-1905) and the magnificent L'Age mur (1902). Her abilities were innate but fine tuned through her affiliation with Auguste Rodin. In this relationship Camille flourished at first, guided under the wing of a master (24 years her senior), but she soon succumbed to his jealous competitiveness and his inability to commit fully to her love. Comparing the two sculptors one finds Claudel to be the true master because she refines lines that Rodin tends to leave unbalanced. Their competitive natures are apparent in the similarities of ideas but in my opinion Claudel outshines her "mentor." Claudel created sculptures from many mediums some plaster, some clay, many marble and even onyx, jade and bronze as well as dabbling in other art forms such as charcoals and portrait paintings. Many of Claudel's best works remain lost due to her internment and her loss of ability to control her own work. She also destroyed many of her own pieces in her angry despair believing them to be under jeopardy of being stolen by "Rodin and his gang." Thankfully the art world has managed to retain most of her great pieces and they currently reside in (of all places) the Rodin Museum in Paris.

This biography is a wonderful read being both interesting and factual and additionally very well written by Odile Ayral-Clause. Camille Claudel lived a tragic life full of ups and downs eventually ending in complete despair. Her life is interesting because she was one of the forerunners for women's rights in that she refused to be dominated by male society and ferociously attacked anyone who attempted to destroy her dreams, unfortunately in 19th century Paris her actions labeled her insane, remember a woman who chose to wear pants was considered a criminal unless they obtained special permission from the police to do so and it was a popular thought at the time that talented women possessed genitalia very similar to men! I think society was more insane than Miss Claudel and I will forever wonder what she could have contributed had she been born in this century. The ending of this woman's tale is heartbreaking in itself but every page in between provides an eye-opening experience of what it must have been like to be an artistic woman during an age controlled by men.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Biography About a Great 19th-Century Scuptor, October 25, 2005

By 

Maryevelyn "a reader" (St. Charles, IL) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: CAMILLE CLAUDEL: A Life (Hardcover)

I read this book last year after seeing the last half of the Isabelle Adjani/Gerard Depardue film on television. The film didn't give Claudel her due. She was a very tough minded woman trying to make her mark in the intensely competitive and 99.99 percent male French nineteenth-century art world. Aside from that her chosen (from childhood) form of expression was sculpture, considered to be purely masculine and financially extremely risky. She was barred from the best art school, L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, because of her gender. Lesser schools accepted female students but charged them higher fees. At age seventeen Claudel began her studies at the Academie Colarossi, a new and equitable institution. Eventually she became Rodin's student and lover. When it became clear that Rodin would never leave his long-time partner and mother of his son in order to marry her, Claudel left him.

She lived and worked under enormous pressure -- not the least of which came from her mother and sister, very conventional and rather dreary middle-class people. No doubt Claudel was eccentric and nervous because of the difficulties of her life, but she was not insane. Her mother had her committed to a mental hospital after her father died and was no longer able to protect her. Claudel was not yet forty. She never sculpted again. Claudel died a pauper at seventy-nine after living the last half of her life with the insane and other inconvenient people. Her mother and sister never visited her. Her brother visited her two or three times during her incarceration.

Claudel was a genius. For a century Rodin's name overshadowed hers, but since a major retrospective at the Musee Rodin in 1984 and important exhibitions in the U.S. her work is known all over the world. Many of her pieces can be seen at the Musee Rodin in Paris.


Ayral-Clause's biography of Camille Claudel is a great gift to English speaking readers. It is deeply researched, beautifully written, and is enhanced with many photographs of Claudel, her milieu and her sculptures. I am very glad I read it.