camille claudel: biography and collections

No other woman had such an intellectual, artistic and erotic impact on Rodin's life like Camille Claudel. Soon after Rodin met her in a sculpture class, previously supervised by his colleague Boucher, Camille became his pupil, model, assistant and lover. During a decade, she helped Rodin create the Gates of Hell and The Burghers of Calais and also realised a number of works in her own right. After her separation from Rodin, who would not give up his ties with Rose Beuret, Camille further developed her own style of narrative sculpture.

Only since the rediscovery of her work and talent in the 1980s, especially by the efforts of Reine Marie Paris, Camille's biography has been studied more thoroughly and not only with regard to her liaison with Rodin: she was one of the rare female artists of the 19th century that could and did compete with the best male sculptors of her time.

The following section of the Rodin-Web pays tribute to the grace and strength of her work, and to the tragedy of her life. From various sources, our Rodin-Web art historian Esther Dieckhoff has extracted essential facts and insights and summarised them in a concise, illustrated biography, presented in chronological order.

Moreover, we have listed the public collections in France and abroad, that show Claudel's works. This way we hope to help making her work - most of it held in private hands - more accessible to the broad public.