Rodin & Camille Claudel
Two sculptors, a love that destroyed her
The sculptor Camille Claudel, Auguste Rodin's pupil, model and lover, brilliant in her own right; abandoned by him, she was committed by her family to an asylum for the last 30 years of her life.
01Why it matters
It is the emblematic case of the woman artist eclipsed and destroyed by a male genius; today her work is reclaimed.
02The conflict
Rodin's relationship with Rose Beuret and society's rejection.
03The iconic moment
Camille sculpting "The Mature Age," an allegory of her own abandonment.
04What survived
Rodin's "The Kiss"; the Camille Claudel museum in Nogent.
05Frequently asked questions
Why is the story of Rodin & Camille Claudel famous?
It is the emblematic case of the woman artist eclipsed and destroyed by a male genius; today her work is reclaimed.
How does the story of Rodin & Camille Claudel end?
Camille sculpting "The Mature Age," an allegory of her own abandonment. Rodin's "The Kiss"; the Camille Claudel museum in Nogent.
Related loves
Salvador Dalí & Gala
The muse who signed his paintings
Gala left the poet Paul Éluard for Dalí and became his absolute muse, manager and obsession; he often signed "Gala-Salvador Dalí."
Read the story
Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera
The elephant and the dove
The two great artists of post-revolutionary Mexico, bound by art and politics and divided by infidelity, who loved and wounded each other until Frida's death.
Read the story
Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald
The couple who embodied the Jazz Age
F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda, the glamorous, self-destructive marriage that defined the Roaring Twenties; between alcohol, creative jealousy and Zelda's mental illness, their love burned out as fast as it shone.
Read the story