Camille Claudel and Rodin
The Meeting of two destinies

Camille Claudel (1864-1943) became acquainted with Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) in 1882, when he was only seventeen years old.  At that time, Rodin was already enjoying considerable fame, and on recognising the talent of the young woman, he urged her to help him with the two great orders with which he was then occupied,  The Gates of Hell and The Burghers of Calais.  Consequently, the professional and teacher-pupil relationship which bound Rodin and Camille deepened to become an unbounded and mutual passion.  For ten years, the two sculptors were to create in an admirable state of symbiosis.  Their works say it all.  The Eternal Spring,  I am beautiful or The Waltz speak of love and shared passion.  Despite the enthusiastic artistic and sentimental complicity which bound Rodin and Claudel, by the end of the century things were to start deteriorating and their relations worsened.  Both were to continue enriching their respective works, but would work more independently, the jealous fits of the love-smitten woman becoming increasingly violent.  Rodin was never to cease producing, whereas Camille was progressively paralysed by an interior suffering which would finally take possession of her hands.  At that point, she went into internment and then to the cloister while he suffered the pain of empathy.  Haunted by the face of his beloved, Rodin was to set the diaphanous beauty of Camille in sumptuous plaster, bronze and marble busts.  He was to suffer unto death at having witnessed the fading of a creative flame as sharp as that which had burned in the veins of she whom he had once called "my wild friend" and whom he regarded as a woman of genius.





It is this, at the same time stormy and fertile, history which has resulted in the Camille Claudel  and Rodin - the meeting of two destinies exhibition.  Whereas Rodin produced thousands of pieces throughout his career, Claudel left a more restricted but no less imposing body of work. 

Visitors will discover two powerful and indissociable artistic itineraries by following a chronological path and set of themes -  Before the meeting, the happy period, the stormy period, Camille Claudel: The liberation and "He never loved anyone but you”.   The exchange between the two accomplices continued over more than a quarter century, embracing several creative periods.  The works produced before the meeting between the Master and the pupil disclose a timid Camille and Rodin already in full possession of his talent.  Then there are the sublime treasures produced by a decade of wild happiness that occupy a large part of the exhibition, showing the full effects of the enchantment of love on the two sculptors.  However, the stormy period succeeds the happy period, bringing with it some of the most tortured works thought up by Camille Claudel.  The last part depicts the liberation from the sculptor, as she tries to put some distance between Rodin and herself; even though she suffered atrociously from loneliness and sorrow, she managed to produce some splendid pieces, an erudite mixture of brittleness and maturity.  In 1932, the editor and art merchant, Eugene Blot, sent Camille an admirable and touching letter in which he said, in speaking of her sculpture The Imploring one; "One day when Rodin visited me, I suddenly saw him stop dead in front of this portrait, he contemplated it, gently caressed the metal and began to cry.  Yes, to cry.  Like a child.  It is now fifteen years since he died.  Actually, he never loved anyone but you, Camille, I can tell you that now. (…) Time will remedy all.”  One could hardly find anything better than this touching declaration, "He never loved anyone but you", as the title for the final section of the exhibition.  It ends with an epilogue (the exile of Camille, the glory of Rodin) to emphasize the contrast between the isolation of Camille in her psychiatric asylum and the immense fame of Rodin. 

This exhibition is the first in North America to feature the influence which the two sculptors had on one another.  Photographs and letters lay their intimacy bare to us.  Especially, more than one hundred and twenty works tell the story of two artists determined to find their way, unique, strong, without concession.

The exhibition is organised by the Quebec National Museum of Fine Arts with the Rodin Museum of Paris, in collaboration with the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Pierre Gianadda Foundation of Martigny.

Head of project: Line Ouellet, Exhibition and Education Manager at the Quebec National Museum of Fine Arts.  Organiser: Yves Lacasse, Collection and Research Manager at the Quebec National Museum of Fine Arts and Antoinette Le Norman-Romain, General Curator in charge of sculptures at the Rodin Museum in Paris.  Project co-ordination: Claire Desmeules, Exhibition Co-ordinator with the Quebec National Museum of Fine Arts.  Technical Co-ordination: Andre Sylvain, Co-ordinator of Operations at the Quebec National Museum of Fine Arts.  Design: Denis Allison, principal designer with the Quebec National Museum of Fine Arts.

The exhibition catalogue contains all the exposed works in colour.  The catalogue summarises both the personal and artistic relations between Camille Claudel and Auguste Rodin which, as of their meeting in 1882, marked their respective careers. Selling price of catalogue CHF 45.- (approx. € 30.-).