Who is Camille Claudel, who spent 30 years in a Mental Hospital?
Camille Claudel (December 8, 1864 – October 19, 1943), French sculptor. The older sister of the French poet and diplomat Paul Claudel.
This article is the life story of Sculptor Camille Claudel, who was closed to a mental hospital for 33 years because of her love for Auguste Rodin.
It was Camille Claudel who began to deal with materials such as stones and mud in her childhood. Unfortunately, at that time, girls were not allowed to attend art academies in Paris in France. However, they could take private lessons from famous sculptors if they paid for it. With the support of his father, Claudel rented a workshop with a group of young women, most of them British, including Jessie Lipscomb. He met Auguste Rodin in 1883
Lessons started in Rodin’s workshop. Camille was joining as a 19-year-old girl with a group of female artists attending the class. After a while, this young woman, Rodin’s new favorite with inspiration, would soon become both her lover and her biggest rival. Rodin, on the other hand, was an artist who was 43 years old and still could not reach the reputation she wanted, and she was jealous of the talent of the woman she fell in love with.
Camille Claudel falls in love with Rodin
Camille and Rodin were now living a big and passionate love outside of private lessons. Rodin, however, was also with Rose Beuret. They also had a child, but they were not married.
Rose was actually a completely different woman. While it may seem like a woman who fell in love with an ordinary artist, it was more. She was primarily a determined woman. He had managed to hold Rodin, whom he always knew was with other women, in some way and became a part of his life. Whatever loyalty to Rodin was, the woman who had been waiting at home was Rose for twenty years.
Young Camille forgot her beauty and fell for Rodin’s love. He was unaware of what was going on. He was experiencing the excitement of finding his master, lover, man. Rodin found the muse. She told Camille that her relationship wasn’t going well, that they would leave with Rose. Camille was young and in love enough to believe it.
Rodin made “The Gates of Hell” which was his most important work in these dates. According to some of the works whose effects are clearly observed, Camille is claimed to belong to Camille.
Although much more successful and talented than Rodin, Camille, who has always been under the shadow of Rodin, also came across Rodin after an accident when she faced the fact that Rodin had relationships with multiple women and was a brutal and rude man against women. Losing her child away from her again became Camille, which everyone knows.
Camille finally made a difficult decision and left Rodin. This separation would throw Camille in the grip of depression. Nevertheless, like every artist, he was nourished by his pain and made his most valuable works, “Waltz, Clotho, Maturity, Lost God, Chattering Women, Sakuntala” during this period.
After these works, he was named as a genius by art critics.
Since 1905, mental illness began in Claudel. He broke many of his sculptures, began to show signs of paranoia. He accused Rodin of planning to kill him. Until then, his brother, who had been protecting himself, closed his workshop after he got married and returned to China. Camille did not know when her father, who supported her career and also helped financially, died on March 2, 1913.
On March 10, at the initiative of his brother, he was hospitalized in the Ville-Évrard mental hospital in Neuilly-sur-Marne. The only person she could meet was her brother Paul, who came to visit him every five years.
In 1920, his doctor wrote a letter to his family to accept their daughter home, but their mother and sister did not respond to the doctor’s letter because they did not approve of his life with Rodin.
Camille Claudel died on October 19, 1943 after 30 years in a mental hospital and was buried in the Monfavet cemetery.
He destroyed about 90 sculptures, sketches and drawings.
Henrik Ibsen talked about Rodin’s relationship with Claudel in his latest work, We Woke Up The Dead, in 1899.
In 1951, Paul Claudel held an exhibition at the Rodin Museum. A large exhibition of Camille’s works opened in 1984.
Many biographies were written in the 1980s.
Camille Claudel, made in 1988, led to her recognition outside the art circles. Isabelle Adjani played Rodin and Gérard Depardieu as Camille in the movie. The film was nominated for an Oscar in two categories.
In Turkey, Camille Claudel first time, as the first game Nienor Theater in Izmir, on 15 October 2010 İzmir French Cultural Center has staged the world premiere. Directed by Eda Erdem and played by Ebru Atilla Sagay, Kaan Basmacıoğlu directed the game and Aykut Beysi stage design.
