Major Retrospective of French Sculptor Camille Claudel Arrives at Getty

The Waltz (Allioli), about 1900. Camille Claudel (French, 1864–1943). Bronze. Private collection.
Photo: Musée Yves Brayer.

The J. Paul Getty Museum presents Camille Claudel, an exhibition showcasing nearly 60 sculptures by one of the most daring and visionary artists of the late 19th century. On view at the Getty Center from April 2 to July 21, 2024, the exhibition seeks to reevaluate Claudel’s work and affirm her legacy within a more complex genealogy of modernism.

A trailblazing artist working in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Claudel defied the social expectations of her time to create forceful sculptures of the human form. Her innovative artworks treat the universal themes of childhood, old age, love, and loss with an expressive intensity in a variety of genres, materials, and scales.

“A pioneer for women artists of the time, in a short but extraordinary career, Claudel established herself as one of the most important sculptors of the late 19th and early 20th-century Europe,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the Getty Museum. “Revered in France, and now widely sought after by museums around the world, her deeply moving images of the human body are one of the high points of romantic sculpture in Europe, and I am sure will be greatly admired by our visitors and especially the artist community.”

Claudel’s career has often been interpreted through her dramatic personal life, which involved a complicated relationship with her mentor, Auguste Rodin, and mental health issues resulting in a 30-year confinement in a psychiatric institution. While French collectors and critics immediately recognized Claudel’s talent, her art remains little known outside of France.

Organized chronologically and thematically, the exhibition will invite visitors to experience a diverse array of sculptures Claudel created during her career and many of the masterpieces that earned her much success.

“Claudel excelled at capturing the likeness of her subjects, depicting individuals at every stage of life with powerful emotion and empathy,” says Anne-Lise Desmas, senior curator of sculpture and decorative arts at the J. Paul Getty Museum. “The support and success she experienced with collectors, fellow artists, and journalists during a time when few women artists were widely regarded is testimony to her rare talent and ceaseless creativity.”

Claudel impressed critics with compositions that pushed the boundaries, such as The Waltz—a dynamic scene of two lovers surrendering to a dance. The first iteration Claudel created of the sculpture will be on view—a unique bronze cast with complex, openwork draperies or “veils” swirling behind the figures. In response to demand from collectors, Claudel produced several inventive versions of the couple at a smaller scale, including a few bronzes which will be on view to juxtapose their varied patina effects with brown, green, and gilded surfaces.

Another masterpiece in the exhibition is Age of Maturity, on loan from the Musée d’Orsay. One of her most ambitious sculptures, the three large figures depict life’s tragic journey with Old Age leading Middle Age forward, beyond the grasp of a kneeling, abandoned Youth. When it was exhibited, a critic declared, “We can no longer call Mademoiselle Claudel a student of Rodin; she is a rival.”

Torso of a Crouching Woman, modeled about 1884-1885, cast about 1913. Camille Claudel (French, 1864–1943). Bronze. Getty Museum

When Claudel embarked on a series of compositions inspired by everyday life, she “created a new art,” as her biographer and art critic Mathias Morhardt noted with amazement. Smaller in scale and often featuring novel materials, these works focus on the intimacy, poetry, and humanity of lived experience. The most famous is The Chatterboxes, which depicts a group of nude women seated on benches, leaning forward to listen as one woman whispers a secret. The Musée Rodin version, rendered in green marble onyx, will be reunited with another variation in white marble for the first time. Another compelling example is Fireside Dream, depicting an intimate scene of a woman sitting by a fireplace. Produced in marble and bronze, the sculpture was Claudel’s most reproduced composition: three versions will be on display, including one conceived as a nightlight, with a red light bulb mimicking the fire.

In the last decade of her career, Claudel experienced physical, mental, and financial problems. However, she continued to participate in exhibitions, receive commissions, and create compelling works, including powerful Greek mythological scenes like Wounded Niobid and Perseus and the Gorgon. Commissioned by her patron Countess de Maigret, Claudel incorporated her own likeness in the face of Medusa for Perseus and the Gorgon.

Claudel later became the subject of numerous books, films, and exhibitions. Still, fewer than 10 of her sculptures reside in U.S. museums. Getty’s recently acquired Torso of a Crouching Woman will be on view, a work created during Claudel’s years in Rodin’s studio, highlighting the important role she played as collaborator and muse of the artist. Young Roman, acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago, will also be displayed and is a great example of Claudel’s art of portraiture, a genre in which she excelled at a young age.

The exhibition will feature a hands-on touch experience with reproductions of one of the feet of the Torso of a Crouching Woman in various materials Claudel used in her practice. Additional components of the exhibition include murals of Claudel based on historic photographs and a video about the Musée Camille Claudel in Nogent-sur-Seine.

The Chatterboxes, 1897. Camille Claudel (French, 1864–1943). Marble onyx and bronze. Musée Rodin, Paris.
Image © Musée Rodin. Photo: Christian Baraja.

Camille Claudel is co-curated by Anne-Lise Desmas, senior curator of sculpture and decorative arts at the Getty Museum, and Emerson Bowyer, Searle curator of painting and sculpture of Europe at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition was first on view in Chicago from October 7, 2023 to February 19, 2024.

Complementing the exhibition is a catalogue co-authored by Desmas and Bowyer, with essays that explore the many facets of Claudel’s life and work, along with commentary by sculptor Kiki Smith. Getty will host an opening day conversation at the Getty Center on April 2 at 2pm with co-curators Desmas and Bowyer, and Musée Camille Claudel director, Cécile Bertran. 

The Getty Museum is also partnering with The Culture List, Inc. to present two immersive six-week art classes for aging seniors at Annenberg GenSpace in Koreatown. Led by teaching artist Silvi Naci from the Feminist Center for Creative Work, students will consider form, materiality, the human body in transformation, movement, and gesture through hands-on activities.

At Getty, the exhibition is generously supported by Anissa and Paul John Balson II in honor of Dr. Paul M. Balson, along with City National Bank.