This young woman doesn't look happy, but when one sees her soulful and beautiful face it speaks volumes both of an interesting personality as well as a difficult life: Camille Claudel (1864-1943). As so many other talented women she dreamed of giving vent to her artistic visions, although her mother found her ambitions of becoming a sculptor very unladylike and tried to curb them. However, Camille had her way and she went to Paris to study at The Academie Colarossi which not only allowed female students, but also gave them the opportunity to work with nude, male models. (At that time Ecole des Beaux-Arts barred women from enrolling to study). Alfred Boucher became her mentor and friend for three years, and he was the one who introduced her to the famous sculptor Augusta Rodin in 1883. Much to her mother's chagrin the 18 years old Camille not only became his muse, but also his mistress. This relationship gave her access to the artistic circles of Paris, but it was seen as scandalous, not least by her family.
August Rodin, c. 1875–80
It's well-known that many
of Rodin's works were made in collaboration with Camille, but typically for that time, Rodin received the honors. Camille wasn't recognized as the artist she was, and she also had to share her famous lover with another woman, the mother of his son. In 1898 she suffered a miscarriage and broke off her sexual relationship with him. At the same time she seems to have developed some kind of psychological problems, smashing some of her works, withdrawing from society now and then which gave her mother the opportunity to have her locked up in a mental asylum for the rest of her life.
Another reason for her changed attitude may have been that Rodin, who had been of help to her, started to oppose some of her ideas and see to it that she didn't get the opportunities she deserved. That didn't condemn her to an eternal obscurity: In 2017 she was sort of being "re-discovered", and today her works are exhibited in several famous museum. Also she now has her own museum, southeast of Paris: Musée Camille Claudel which holds approximately half of her artworks.
Camille Claudel in her studio with a plaster model of "Perseus and the Gorgon"
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/a-woman-of-genius/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Claudel
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