● CAMILLE CLAUDEL. Born in 1864 and died in 1943. FORGOTTEN by everyone in a psychiatric hospital.
What had she done?
She came to study in Paris at a time when the School of Fine Arts was open ONLY to MEN. So she took lessons in artists' studios that accepted WOMEN. She met and became the lover of the most famous sculptor of the time: Auguste Rodin. It would be a passionate and artistic relationship; they worked together, sculpted together (the Rodin Museum and the Musée d'Orsay house beautiful works from this period).
He then abandoned her. He had been living with another woman for years, he, the artist loved and respected by all... she was denigrated, abandoned, and marginalized, even "artistically." She lived alone, no longer trusted anyone, and her works didn't sell. Added to this is the fact that her brother is the famous poet, writer, diplomat, and academic: Paul Claudel.
The family decides to institutionalize her. This woman, too "modern" for her time, is the shame of the house. We have letters she writes to friends and relatives pleading for help; for 30 years she will try to explain to the hospital staff the injustice she is experiencing.
These are heartbreaking testimonies that reveal the lucidity of the hospitalized woman. She practically starved to death on October 19, 1943, in a French public hospital, and no family member will attend her funeral. Her remains will be placed in a mass grave.
Today, Camille Claudel has been completely restored; her works are displayed alongside those of Rodin, and a museum a few miles outside Paris is completely dedicated to her.
(From The City of Women).
