Camille Claudel’s career reached its apex in the first years after her final split with Auguste Rodin. Her hard work, as well as Rodin’s tutelage, had begun to pay off, and she exhibited her work somewhat regularly in Paris. In an effort to delineate her vision from her lover-teacher’s, Camille ventured in a new direction, experimenting with materials and ideas yet unexplored by either of the pair. If Rodin produced grand scale works in the nude, she created smaller pieces of intimate scenes, figures clothed; if he worked with soft marbles, she utilized the hardest jade and onyx, demonstrating her immeasurable talent for crafting with difficult materials.
During this time, Camille’s interest in Japan blossomed, along with a fascination for Art Nouveau—a style emphasizing curved lines and natural scenes. Her most notable works of this period include Maturity, The Wave, and The Gossips, among others.
Though she battled increasing mental illness, Camille continued to work and exhibit until 1905. As promised, her brother Paul donated her pieces to the Musée Rodin, but not without repeated promptings from Rodin himself and critic-friend, Mathias Morhardt. Today, twenty of her works reside in the museum at the Hôtel Biron in Paris.
Much can be debated about the life of Camille Claudel. Did her style derive from Rodin’s experience and artistic lens? Certainly, as her style also evolved from her own inspirations and those of her first art tutor—Alfred Boucher. But Camille influenced Rodin a great deal as well, as shown in his “beautiful period” between the years of 1883-1898, the dates coinciding with their relationship. In Rodin’s Lover, I demonstrate this co-influence.
Another question arises about the date of Camille’s final break from Rodin. While some sources quote 1893 for their separation, others favor 1898, the date of Camille’s last letter to Rodin in which she praises his Monument de Honoré de Balzac, the controversial piece entwined with the Dreyfus Affair. Since relationship lines blur and the lovers had such a tumultuous affair, I portrayed their final days in the later year.
In addition, some histories assert Camille’s mental diagnosis to be dementia, others schizophrenia. The rash behaviors and violent outbursts that intensified in Camille’s life around age eighteen throughout her adulthood, and later, crippling isolation and paranoia, are characteristic of schizophrenia, as are the variable waves of its onset. Whether or not Camille heard voices is up for discussion, but it is one of the most common symptoms of the illness. I chose to use these voices to highlight the inner workings of her mind and the ways in which she battled not only the male-centric art world, but herself.
Fictionalized elements in the story include policeman Alphonse Bertillion’s courtship of Camille, though he was, in fact, the earliest known criminologist. While there is a historical account of Rose Beuret shooting at Camille, the policeman on the scene was also not Bertillion. Other fictional elements involve Camille’s tutors Monsieur Colin and Alfred Boucher, who both visited her originally in the town of Nogent, rather than at the Claudel’s summer home in Villeneuve. I also invented Jules Dalou’s flirtation with Camille, of which there is no record, and his attending Victor Hugo’s birthday celebration in 1883, though he attended a fete in 1885. Finally, Camille’s works Girl with the Sheaf and Head of a Slave, were also claimed by Rodin and labeled Galatée and Tête de Rieur three years after Camille had designed her own as illustrated in the novel, but neither piece was exhibited at the 1889 Exposition Universelle.
Though all letters and reviews have been fabricated, they are based upon authentic letters and journal reviews. The only exception is one in which Rodin quotes reviewer Jules Claretie from Temps, May 5, 1898, regarding his Monument de Honoré de Balzac, which is, indeed, authentic.