Camille Claudel An Unbelievable Tragic Life

It would be difficult to find another life as tortured and tragic as that of this woman.  She was the brightest and most gifted of all women sculptors of her day.

Her destiny and fate it seems was sealed not only on the date of her birth to a cold unloving mother, but the day she met Auguste Rodin.

Camille Claudel at age 17, moved to Paris from her natal home in northern France in order to study under Alfred Boucher, a noted sculptor at that time.

She was denied being admitted to the Ecole des Beaux Arts because of her gender.  When Alfred decided to return to Florence to teach, he asked his friend and fellow sculptor Auguste Rodin to take over his students.

It was a fateful day in 1883 when at age 19, the young pretty Camille with deep blue eyes first met Rodin, who was then 43 years old and fairly established within the art community of Paris.

Although Rodin lived in concubinage with his long time companion Rose Beuret, it was not long before the two became lovers.

Rodin saw in Camille the astonishing talent and preyed upon  her needs for admiration and love to elicit her passionate devotion not only to help in his own artwork but for himself.

He, who was narcissistic to the core , and 24 years her senior, devoured Camille robbing her of her youthful innocence and trust, and eventually wove an intricate and complex web of emotional torture, that she would never  escape.

Before I continue to tell her story, I want to go back to her childhood in order for you to understand the emotional complexities of this poor women.

She was born in 1864 to a woman, who had hoped for a son, as her mother had lost a male newborn only a year before Camille’s birth.   Even her given name, Camille , reflected this ambiguity of her mother, as it is used by both males and females.

Camille being the unwanted child, suffered the deprivation of her mother’s love and attention, that Madame Claudel preferred to give instead to her younger sister, Louise and brother Paul. Her father was somewhat more available emotionally, yet he was often more involved in his career.

Camille sought as all children do the delight and admiration of their parents.  Unable to win the love from her mother, she sought solace in bringing home clumps of clay that she loved to model.

By her teens, Camille was passionate about sculpting, despite her mother’s strong disapproval.  It was only her father who encouraged her and made plans for the family to go to Paris, so Camille could study sculpting.

It is in our childhood that the moulds are cast, that often forever shape our perceptions of ourselves and relationships.  From then on, we are continuously trying to heal from whatever hurts , neglect, we had to endure during our formative years.

When Camille met Rodin, she thought she had finally found the love and passionate devotion she had never experienced before and she in return gave all in return to maintain his devotion to the extent that she emptied herself.

Rodin was not satisfied being loved by two women, any more than he would allow himself to be available to either one.  Narcissists are like parasites who attach out of need for love and admiration, that they are unable to feel for themselves, but likewise are unable to give back to anyone else.

In Camille, Rodin had the admiration and devotion, but he also milked her talent and ideas  and acclaimed it as his own.  Many works of Rodin are influenced by Camille Claudel and not the other way around.

Art historians contend that Rodin’s style changed after becoming involved with Camille.  Some say that many of the statues seen in the Rodin museum where obviously sculpted by 4 hands, not only the two of Rodin!

Yet, only a few are credited to the hands of Camille.  She was said to have been the  model and inspiration behind The KIss.

It was true that in her day, women sculptors were often over shadowed by males, who for centuries dominated the art.   Camille in particular was noted for her sensuous nudes, that inspired Rodin’s works.

It was not considered appropriate nor proper for women to show their erotic notions through any art form, especially sculpture.

Camille’s devotion to meeting her mentor and lover’s demands went far beyond sculpting with him.  Tragically she gave in to his refusals to allow her to bring the babies she conceived by him to life and painfully submitted to his demands that she abort.

How many abortions she endured are lost and hidden in obscurity to the public. Yet I suspect these events became tortuous emotionally hells for Camille.

After approximately 10 years together, their passionate affair dissolved when Rodin announced that despite her love and devotion, he would never marry her.

Camille had never lived with her Rodin, as he seemingly preferred the ease of living with Rose Beuret, despite her raging jealously over Camille.

Rose too had conceived a son with Rodin, but instead was allowed to give birth to the only child Rodin had, but whom he never recognised formally nor raised.

I think Rodin’s refusal to marry her after all that she had sacrificed for him, was the last straw for Camille.  Although they kept in contact for several years, more  for professional reasons, Camille began to withdraw unto herself, cutting herself off from others.

The reality of her unrequited love and companionship she had so longed for with Rodin, and  the overwhelming guilt over the abortions, plunged her into the deepest depression.

The darkness and pain she felt was overwhelming and became  unbearable. It was then that her life began to unravel into tortuous shreds.

Alone, she withdrew further into the cavernous depression, where she lost interest in her art, and in her own existence.  She ended up destroying many of her statues, that she probably saw as herself.

As the solitude of her depression increased she became paranoid to some stating that Rodin was stealing her ideas and that he was trying to do away with  her.

As in some cases of paranoia, they can be fueled by some truths that are indeed reality based, however their acclamation of persecution may be exaggerated.

In reality Rodin did indeed craftily steal  some of her ideas and ended up poisoning her, not by chemical agents but by his devouring narcissism that rendered her emotionally gutted and sick.

Several days after her father died in march of 1913, Camille was committed by her family to a psychiatric asylum.

Her diagnosis was said to be schizophrenia.  After a year or so she was transferred to another facility in the south of France near Avignon.

I doubt that she was schizophrenic, as the symptoms of this illness most often occur in late adolescence.  Additionally her doctor and friends later reported her to no longer have psychotic symptoms.

I suspect the most appropriate diagnosis would have been Major Depressive Disorder with Psychotic Features.

Her tragic story worsens as from that day on March 10th 1913, when she was forcefully removed from her residence, Camille Claudel never left the asylum alive.  There were attempts by friends and supporters to reverse her confinement, but the Claudel family consisting of her mother, brother and sister consistently refused.

Mostly out of embarrassment and more specifically it was by her mother’s wishes, who  I suspect finally wanted to be rid of Camille.

Even her doctor wrote the family saying that Camille should be released and reintegrated back into the family, but that fell on deaf ears.

The family instructed the staff that all mail be refused to Camille, and that all letters she wrote were never to be mailed.

In all of her years of confinement, her mother and sister never even visited her or had any further contact with her.  Brother Paul, who became a diplomat stationed in NYC, visited her sporadically about 7 times.

By 1940, World War II had taken its toll on France and food provisions became scarce for psychiatric patients.  The director  informed the family of the situation and pleaded for food to feed the patients , though  his pleas were never answered.

It was reported that Camille was dying of malnutrition  and that she took her last breath after having been stricken by a stroke on October the 19th ,1943.

She was 78 years old. Despite the family being informed, no one came be claim her body and she was buried in a communal and unmarked grave.

As for Rodin,   he finally gave in to Rose’s demands to marry after 53 years and only married her two weeks before her death .   He died a few months later at the age of 77 in the same year of 1917.

Whereas Rodin has a museum of his acclaimed works in a prominent part of Paris, It was only recently that descendants of the Claudel family made efforts to see that her remaining statues be given a home  in Nogent sur Seine. A commemorative grave site was finally erected in her name in the lonely cemetery of Montfavet.

Each time I have walked past her last home and atelier on quai du Bourbon on Isle Saint Louis, where she was forcefully removed that fateful day, I always feel twinges of intense sadness for her and the tortuous hell of her life.

The injustice of it all.  A life wasted in agony and desolation.  A talented and brilliant artist lost in the oblivious  obscurity of depression and criminal commitment.

Her family and her lover both putridly narcissistic.  There can be no real redemption to make up for her lost life full of betrayal.

Perhaps it is only her statues that give off the devotion and love she put into them, that she herself, never received from the very people she loved.