Camille Claudel (1989)
Director: Bruno Nuytten
Cast: Isabelle Adjani .... Camille Claudel, Gérard Depardieu .... Auguste Rodin, Laurent Grévill .... Paul Claudel, Alain Cuny .... Louis-Prosper Claudel, Madeleine Robinson .... Louise-Athanaise Claudel, Katrine Boorman .... Jessie Lipscomb, DaniPle Lebrun .... Rose Beuret, Aurelle Doazan .... Louise Claudel, Madeleine Marie .... Victoire, Maxime Leroux .... Claude Debussy, Philippe Clévenot .... EugPne Blot, Roger Planchon .... Morhardt, Flaminio Corcos .... Schwob, Roch Leibovici .... P'tit Louis, Gérard Darier .... Marcel
in 1883 France, sculptor Auguste Rodin meets sculptress Camille Claudel and they begin a relationship
Historical Background:
Auguste Rodin – French sculptor who both excelled at and rebelled against the Beaux-arts tradition.
1840 (November 12) – François-Auguste-René Rodin was born to a working class family in Paris.
Despite the talent evident in his portrait of the local priest who helped him discover his vocation, Rodin was denied admission to the Beaux Arts academy.
He was accepted at a trade school for decorative sculpture.
He later moved to Belgium to work in a studio that produced decorative sculpture.
In Belgium he created The Age of Bronze. It looked so realistic to viewers that critics accused Rodin of surmoulage (i.e., taking plaster molds from live models).
Rodin struggled to clear his name.
Rose Beuret was his loyal companion during his years of poverty in Belgium
1864 (December 8) – birth of Camille Claudel in northern France, the second child of a family of farmers and gentry.
1866 – a son, Auguste-EugPne Beuret, born to Rodin and Rose Beuret.
1880 – Rodin was awarded the commission to create a portal for the planned Museum of Decorative Arts. Although the museum was never built, Rodin worked for 37 years on this monumental sculptural group, The Gates of Hell, depicting scenes from Dante's Inferno. Some of the sculptures were his best-known:
The Thinker (representing the poet Dante), The Three Shades and The Kiss.
The Gates are: the Ugolino group, Fugitive Love, The Falling Man, The Sirens, Fallen Caryatid Carrying her Stone, Damned Women, The Standing Fauness, The Kneeling Fauness, The Martyr, She Who Once Was the Beautiful Helmetmaker's Wife, Glaucus, Polyphem.
1881 -- Camille, her mother, brother and younger sister moved to the Montparnasse area of Paris. Her father remained behind, working to support them. She studied at the Académie Colarossi with sculptor Alfred Boucher.
1882 -- Claudel rented a workshop with primarily English young women, including sculptor Jessie Lipscomb.
1883 – Rodin agreed to supervise Alfred Boucher's sculpture course during his absence. Here he met 18-year-old sculptress Camille Claudel. Rodin fell in love with his talented pupil, and Claudel recognized her chance to be tutored by the greatest sculptor talent of her time, who was just breaking through to fame. They became a creative and intimate couple. They shared an atelier at a small old castle (68 Boulevard d'Italie, Paris). And Rodin made a contract with Claudel to give up all contact with other women and marry her. (According to Claudel's friend Jessie Lipscomb, Claudel and Rodin had two children.)
But, regardless of his new love, Rodin still kept up his old ties with Rose Beuret.
The relationship between Rodin and Claudel caused family problems for Claudel, for her family did not at all approve of her relationship with Rodin.
Claudel inspired Rodin as a model for many of his tragic love couples. For instance, she assisted him during his work on The Burghers of Calais.
1892 -- Claudel ended intimacy with Rodin, (perhaps because of an unwanted abortion), but they still saw each other until 1898.
1890s – Rodin received a commissioned to create a Monument to Victor Hugo. The work reflected his relationship with Claudel: The Poet and Love, The Genius and Pity, The Sculptor and his Muse.
1893 -- Camille's Bronze Waltz.
1897 – Rodin made a plaster model of the Monument to Victor Hugo. The model met criticism because it did not fit conventional expectations.
1897 -- with Wave, Camille broke with her Rodin period, now using a much more decorative style.
1898 – his Monument to Balzac at the Champ des Mars (which showed the writer in his morning frock) was also repudiated. After this, he did not finish any public commissions.
1898 -- after nearly 15 years, the Camille and Rodin parted.
For awhile, Camille was with the younger Claude Debussy, the composer. She gave him a copy of her La Valse which was on his mantle place until he died. (Apparently, he was more taken with her than vice-versa.)
1900 -- Camille's The Age of Maturity is an allegory of her break with Rodin.
1903 – Camille exhibited her works at the Salon des Artistes français or at the Salon d'Automne.
After 1903 – he enlarged his had his most successful works enlarged to monumental dimensions.
At this time he was France's best known artist and had many students, craftsmen and stone cutters.
1905 forward -- Camille acted mentally deranged: she destroyed many of her statues, disappeared for long periods of time, acted paranoid, accusing Rodin of stealing her ideas and trying to kill her.
1906 -- Camille's brother wed and returned to China. After this Camille secluded herself in her workshop.
c. 1915 – Rodin produced numerous erotic drawings.
1906 – he exhibited his erotic drawings at Weimar Museum. This resulted in the Kessler scandal, in which Harry Count Kessler was dismissed as curator of the Museum.
1913 -- Claudel's father (who had helped to support her) died. Eight days later she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Every few years her brother would visit her.
1917 (January 29) – Rodin finally married Rose Beuret, who died two weeks later.
1917 (November 17) – death of Rodin.
1920 -- physician Dr. Brunet advised Claudel's mother to try to reintegrate her daughter back into the family, but her mother was not interested.
1929 -- Jessie Lipscomb visited Claudel. .
1943 – after 30 years of living in an asylum, Camille Claudel died. Her sister and mother never visited her.
1951 -- her brother organized an exhibition at the Musée Rodin (and continues to display her sculptures).
Return to Home Page (Vernon Johns Society)