"From today's date, October 12th, 1886, onwards I will have Melle Camille Claudel
as my sole student and I will protect her, and her alone, with all the means I
have at my disposal, as will my friends, and more particulary my influential friends,
who are also her friends. I will not accept any other students [...] I will no longer
go to Mme X's house, and will no longer teach her sculpting. After the exhibition
in May, we will leave for Italy and will stay there for at least 6 months, living together
in an indissoluble relationship, after which Melle Claudel shall be my wife."
Rodin commits himself, he agrees to everything, probably under the influence of
Melle Camille. Is this contract an erotic game by which he puts himself entirely at
the disposal of his mistress? It is one of the most powerful documents showing the
passion that linked the Master to his student, one of the fundamental milestone of
this "lamentable story", as Paul Claudel, Camille's brother described it.
Camille Claudel & Rodin, a story in three stages. Antoinette Le Normand-Romain
regulates her analysis in three periods, from the sculptures of the two artists:
Sakountala, and ambitious and romantic work reflects the shared passion; Fate and
the Convalescent are in the very heart of the game of crossed references and
inspirations; Niobid, finally, hurt, broken, nostalgic, symbolizes the failure of Camille
both as a woman and as an artist.
Time will heal everything draw objectively the aesthetic consequences of the
tempestuous links that existed between the two sculptors.
