The Musée d’Orsay version of La Jeunesse et L’Âge Mûr by Camille Claudel
A bronze sculpture by Camille Claudel thought to have been lost for over a century sold in Paris for €3.1 million.
Recently, I feel like the art world has been reanalyzing the work of great female artists, especially those who, previously, were mainly known for their relationships with great male artists. I’ve written several times about Françoise Gilot, her ten-year relationship with Pablo Picasso, and how, since her passing, her work has begun to receive greater attention and respect from academics, collectors, and museum-goers. This is especially true in France, where she had been a pariah thanks to Picasso’s influence after she broke off their relationship. Something very similar seems to have happened to Camille Claudel, the great French sculptor mainly known as the student and companion of Auguste Rodin.
La Jeunesse et L’Âge Mûr (Youth and the Age of Maturity) is a bronze sculpture Claudel began creating around 1894, around two years after she and Rodin separated. The French government initially commissioned the sculpture, but they canceled the contract several years later, before Claudel could cast anything in bronze. The work shows three nude figures: a young woman is on her knees, taking an older man by the hand, almost beckoning him to stay. Meanwhile, an older woman is drawing him away. It is meant to represent the progression of life and aging. Some, however, have interpreted the work as representative of Claudel’s romantic life with Rodin. The main reason why Rodin broke things off with Claudel is because he wanted to prioritize the relationship he had with Rose Beuret, with whom he had a son. So many have interpreted La Jeunesse et L’Âge Mûr as representing Beuret taking Rodin away from Claudel. Many have noticed that the young kneeling woman does bear a resemblance to the artist, while the male figure is someone reminiscent of Rodin’s work Les Bourgeois de Calais.
The work was rediscovered in an abandoned apartment last year, making it the fourth still-existing casting of the statue. The Musée d’Orsay, the Musée Claudel, and the Musée Rodin own the other versions. This one was cast in 1907 from the same mold as the Musée Claudel version. These versions are part of a series of six and were made at one-third the size of the earlier castings. The bronze was consigned to the auction house Philocale, whose employees were the ones to discover the statue as they were asked to take an inventory of the apartment’s contents by the new owner. On Sunday, La Jeunesse et L’Âge Mûr crossed the block with specialists anticipating that it would sell for between €1.5 million and €2 million. The Claudel would end up doubling that number, selling for €3.1 million (or €3.7 million w/p), becoming the second most valuable work by the artist ever sold. Claudel’s auction record was set in 2013 at Sotheby’s London when her 1892 work La Valse sold for £5.1 million (about $8 million).
This is just another milestone in the greater appreciation of Claudel’s work. Many point to 1988 as the time the general public began to reevaluate her life and career since that year saw the release of a popular biopic Camille Claudel featuring Isabelle Adjani as the titular sculptor and Gerard Depardieu as Rodin. Her popularity has since grown, with the Musée Claudel being established in Nogent-sur-Seine in 2016.