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LA PENSEE : CAMILLE CLAUDEL BY RODIN
ITEM NUMBER: TEZR56
SIZE: 10.25" HIGH
FEATURED FINISH: BRONZE PATINA
MEDIUM: BONDED STONE
SCULPTOR: ELEGANZA
SAFE FOR OUTDOOR USE?: F
SHIPPING AND HANDLING FEE: $14.95
TIME TO SHIP: MADE TO ORDER, SHIPS IN 2-3 WEEKS
PRICE: $ 192.00
La Pensee (thought): A portrait of Camille Claudel. Musée Rodin, Paris In 1886 Rodin made a bust of Camille Claudel. We see her gentle reflective face emerging from an unformed mass. The twenty-two year old girl wears a Breton bride's coiffe. Camille was never to wear the headdress of a bride. Although she and Rodin loved each other passionately they were never married. Rodin called the statue Thought, probably thinking of it as a feminine counterpart to his male figure called The Thinker. It has been suggested that, like Botticelli's Venus, it is a figure of beauty rising from a primordial source. Camille Claudel (1864-1943) -The figure of tragedy haunts all remembrance of Camille Claudel. Early in her life she exhibited an unmistakable talent for sculpturing and the fiercely independent nature of the nineteenth century "new woman". She was scarcely more than twenty when she met Rodin, twenty-four years her senior. The meeting seemed fortuitous for both. He took her into his studio where she developed her talent. He also learned from her. She became his collaborator, actually doing work on some of his statues. He consulted her about everything. She modeled for many of his most inspired works. Her beauty was profound. Rodin was a licentious man but Camille with her beauty, talent, independence, pride and intelligence held him in an embrace that he had not known before. She became his mistress for fifteen tempestuous years and the great love of his life but his attachment to Rose, his common-law wife, prevented their marriage. Camille could not share; she could not tolerate the situation. She withdrew from him, from the world, drifting into a state of hopeless insanity which confined her for years in to mental institutions. Rodin created his greatest works during those years in which he was associated with Camille Claudel. His erotic statues assumed a new character of calmness and depth. She provided an unquestionable influence upon those works. He in turn, helped her develop her dazzling talent. While she worked on his statues she continued to produce pieces of her own which received recognition when they were shown. Although the extent of her work was undoubtedly curtailed by her obligations to Rodin's studio we now see her talent as one of the major sculptural talents of the nineteenth century.
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