MIA for a Century, Camille Claudel Sculpture Hammers for $3.8 Million
151Feb. 20, 2025
A bronze sculpture byCamille Claudelthat was found in a Paris apartment after having been missing for more than a hundred years sold for €3.7 million ($3.8 million) with fees at an auction in Orléans, France, this week, becoming the second-most expensive piece by the artist ever sold. The work, titledLa jeunesse et l’age mûr, orL’age mûr(The Age of Maturity), had been projected by auction house Philocale, which sold it, to fetch about half that amount.Conceived in 1898 and cast in 1907, the sculpture was found under a cloth by auctioneer Matthieu Semont, who was inventorying an apartment that had sat vacant for fifteen years. It depicts a middle-aged man being led forward by an aged woman while a young woman, kneeling behind him, grasps desperately for his trailing hand. While the vignette can be seen as an allegory for the stages of life, with the man being guided away from youth by death, art historians have noted that it may also illustrate the relationship between Claudel and her mentor Rodin. Claudel began modeling for the renowned sculptor when she was eighteen and he forty-two; she became his assistant, and they engaged in a torrid affair. Following their breakup, she struck out on her own to prove her own talent, before being committed by her family to a psychiatric facility, where she died after decades of confinement. Scholars suggest that the figure of the young woman bears her features, while that of Rodin echoes hisBurghers of Calais.The older woman is thought to represent Rose Beuret, his housekeeper, who later became his wife. Paul Claudel described the work as portraying “my sister Camille, imploring, humiliated, on her knees, that superb, proud creature, and what is being wrenched from her, right there before your very eyes, is her soul.”
Sand-cast by art dealer Eugène Blot, the sculpture is one of several versions of the work, one of which is on view at theMusée d’Orsayin Paris, and another of which is housed at the Musée Camille Claudel in Nogent-sur-Seine, France. Claudel herself did not come to prominence until recent decades, following the 1988 release of a biopic of her life starring Isabelle Adjani. The initial version of herLa valse(The Waltz), a one-off casting, sold for a record-breaking £5.1 million ($6.4 million) by Sotheby’s in London in 2013.