Claudel, Camille

Claudel, Camille (-Rosalie)

(born Dec. 8, 1864, Villeneuve-sur-Fère, Fr.—died Oct. 19, 1943, Montdevergues asylum, Montfavet) French sculptor. She was educated with her brother, Paul Claudel, and by her teens she was a skilled sculptor. In 1881 she moved with her family to Paris and entered the Colarossi Academy. The following year she met the renowned sculptor Auguste Rodin; she is best known today as his student, collaborator, model, and mistress. She contributed whole figures and parts of figures to Rodin's projects, particularly The Gates of Hell (1880–1900). Claudel exhibited her own work successfully at the official salons and in galleries, but she also destroyed many pieces. In 1913, still distraught from her break with Rodin in 1898, she was committed to a mental institution, and from 1914 until her death she lived in a rest home.