L'Implorante, petit modéle

Details

Camille Claudel (1864-1943)
L'Implorante, petit modéle
signed, stamped with the foundry mark and numbered 'C. Claudel EUG BLOT PARIS 42' (on the top of the base)
bronze with dark brown patina
Height: 11 1/8 in. (28.2 cm.)
Conceived circa 1899 and cast by Blot before 1920 in a numbered edition of 59

Provenance

Henri Bernhard, Paris, by whom acquired circa 1958, and thence by descent to the present owner; sale, Christie's, Paris, 20 May 2011, lot 44.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

H. Asselin, 'La vie artistique: Camille Claudel sculpteur', in Extinfor, Pages de France, Paris, 1951, no. 8239, p. 3.
A. Delbée, Une Femme, Paris, 1982 (another cast illustrated).
B. Poirot-Delpech, 'Camille Claudel, sculpteur brisé', in Le Monde, Paris, 2 July 1982, p. 19.
A. Rivière, L'Interdite, Camille Claudel, Paris, 1983, no. 23, p. 76.
B. Gaudichon, "Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre sculpté, peint et gravé ...", in exh. cat., Camille Claudel, Paris, 1984, no. 20b, pp. 56-57 (another cast illustrated p. 57).
R.-M. Paris, Camille Claudel, Paris, 1984, pp. 362-363.
R.-M. Paris & A. de la Chapelle, L'oeuvre de Camille Claudel, catalogue raisonné, nouvelle édition revue et complété, Paris, 1990, no. 43, pp. 164-166.
G. Bouté, Camille Claudel, Le miroir et la nuit, Paris, 1995, pp. 146 & 148 (another cast illustrated pp. 151-152).
F. Duret-Robert, 'L'Affaire Claudel', in Connaissance des Arts, Paris, no. 523, December 1995, pp. 108-115 (another cast illustrated p. 115).
A. Rivière, B. Gaudichon & D. Ghanassia, Camille Claudel, catalogue raisonné, Paris, 1996, no. 43.6b, pp. 112 & 115-117 (other casts illustrated pp. 116-117).
R.-M. Paris, Camille Claudel re-trouvée, catalogue raisonné, Paris, 2000, no.b, pp. 338-344 (another cast illustrated p. 342).
A. Rivière, B. Gaudichon & D. Ghanassia, Camille Claudel, Catalogue raisonné, Troisième édition augmentée, Paris, 2001, no. 44.9, pp. 138-144 (another cast illustrated p. 143).
R.-M. Paris, Chère Camille Claudel, histoire d'une collection, Paris, 2012, no. 2 (another cast illustrated).
R.-M. Paris & P. Cressent, Camille Claudel, Complete Work, Paris, 2014, no. 310, p. 629 (another cast illustrated p. 628).

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Lot Essay

Reine-Marie Paris has confirmed the authenticity of this work.

The creation of this bronze is intimately linked to the genesis of the group L’Age mûr, now in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, which Camille Claudel elaborates between 1894 and 1900 and of which this study becomes an essential element. The sculpture can also be seen as an embodiment of the break between Camille Claudel and her lover, Auguste Rodin, the centenary of whose death is marked this year.

'The group evokes Rodin’s hesitation between his former mistress, who finally wins the day, and Camille who is reaching forward to stop him leaving. Beyond the details of her personal history, Camille has produced a thought-provoking symbolic work about human relationships. She included herself in the group in the figure she called The Imploring Woman, pinpointing the tragic side of
her destiny. The man in the waning years of his maturity is pulled vertiginously forward by old age while stretching an impotent hand towards youth. The nude figures are swathed in floating draperies which accentuate the speed of the movement. Paul Claudel said of it: “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.”’

(quoted after Musée d'Orsay, www.musee-orsay.fr/en).

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