Camille Claudel, A Novel

Alma H. Bond, Ph.D.
PublishAmerica (2006)
ISBN 1424116708
Reviewed by Tammy Petty Conrad for Reader Views (8/06)


This is a story for many. Those interested in the art world will enjoy learning about the sculptors Rodin and the lesser known Claudel. Historians will savor the details of French life in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Romantics will consume each page to find if there’s a happy ending. Feminists will know this story is about a woman before her time.

Written as a memoir by an old woman who has been confined to an asylum for thirty years, it reads like the crafted novel it is. From the beginning we see the petite Camille Claudel suffering the injustices of her mother’s cruelty, which continued throughout her life. Luckily her father supported her artistic endeavors, which was unusual in that age.

Divided into three parts, the novel transports us from Claudel’s childhood in rural France to her apprenticeship with Auguste Rodin, the already famous French sculptor, in Paris and then to her sentence in the asylum.

Learning about the process of sculpting and what it is like in an artist’s studio or atelier, fascinated me. I was amazed to discover that per the author, no sculptors had cut their own marble since Michelangelo! But Camille Claudel did. I’ve always liked Rodin’s work and have been to the Musee Rodin in Paris several times, but knew nothing of Claudel. Camille was nineteen when she began working in Rodin’s atelier. Although quite a gifted artist by this point, she still allowed Rodin to guide her.

But it seems he had more than art on his mind. Camille worked hard to resist this man with “…an enormous head and a hulking body…” who at forty-three was old enough to be her father, but he won out. She was one of his many lovers, although her relationship may have lasted the longest. Both sculptors, they understood each other’s need to work.  But still he continued to reside with Rose, his longtime companion. This ultimately destroyed Camille’s chances of any enduring relationship.

Camille struggled with her decision. It was against her upbringing and she knew her family would disapprove. She tried to engage with other men, including the composer Claude Debussy. But she kept returning to her desire for this artist of her dreams. The author, Alma Bond, has used her psychoanalyst background to get inside the head of her character. Although a creative genius, she seems like she would have been a difficult person to be a friend with or to love. We are with her as her paranoia grows and she descends into a mental state that causes her family to put her away. Once consumed with love, her feelings deteriorated into a conspiracy theory. Did Rodin really steal her work?

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but it is the kind that makes me want to research to learn more about the main characters.  Women artists suffered many injustices. Female students paid more for art school if they were even allowed in. Critics were amazed when an outstanding piece of work was created by a woman. “What are we, idiots or something? How can such thinking permeate the minds of otherwise intelligent men?” Even the male models Camille hired treated her differently, sometimes leaving in the middle of session. She does confess that “I much prefer to see a sculpture of a woman sculpted by a woman…we see more profoundly into the female soul and nurture some secret men will never understand.”

At the peak of her happiness she ruminates, “I feel sorry for people who haven’t experienced what should be the crescendo of life. How can they ever feel complete? It’s like endlessly plodding up a mountain and never reaching the summit. Even though I paid dearly for its consummation, in my better moments I gloat that my sweetest dreams came true….And then they also became real in my work, for dreams are the stuff genius is made of.”

In the end she died alone with none of the fame and glory that Rodin achieved. “Perhaps my statues will live on after I’m gone. And perhaps my struggles will make life easier for women artists in the future. Then it all would have been worthwhile.”

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