Camille Claudel’s The Mature Age at the Musée Rodin, Paris

Camille Claudel at the Musée Rodin: Her Sculptures in Paris

Camille Claudel trained with Rodin, worked beside him for ten years and made sculpture that stands entirely on its own. The Musée Rodin keeps a room for it, because Rodin asked for one.

Visit

Her room is indoors, in the museum galleries. Rodin Museum Tickets

Location

Musée Rodin, 77 Rue de Varenne, Paris 7th.

Visit duration

About 1.5 to 2 hours for the galleries and the garden. Plan your visit

Dates

1864 to 1943, with almost all the surviving work made before 1905.

Who Camille Claudel Was

Camille Claudel was a sculptor, born in 1864, who was carving heads out of clay before she was twenty and entered Rodin’s studio around 1884, first as a student, then as one of his most trusted hands. She modelled for him, carved for him and argued with him. She was also his lover for roughly a decade. None of that is the interesting part: the interesting part is that her own work looks nothing like his, and she was making it the whole time. Her brother was the poet Paul Claudel. For the wider story of the house her work sits in, see what Auguste Rodin left to the Musée Rodin.

The Camille Claudel Sculptures in the Museum

Camille Claudel’s The Waltz at the Musée Rodin, Paris — Photo: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The museum holds a substantial group of her work, and it is shown as hers rather than as a footnote to his. The Waltz, The Wave and The Mature Age are the pieces most people come for, along with busts, studies and a portrait she made of Rodin himself.

What separates her work from his is scale and intimacy. Rodin went large and public; Claudel often worked small, in onyx, marble and bronze together, and built groups you have to lean in to read. The Wave is barely more than thirty centimetres across and contains three women under a green onyx breaker.

A Room Rodin Asked For

Plaster busts by Camille Claudel at the Musée Rodin, Paris — Photo: Romainbehar, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

When Rodin gave his collection to the French state in 1916, he attached conditions. One of them was that a room be set aside for Camille Claudel’s work, which is why a museum named after him has always shown hers.

By then she had stopped working. She had destroyed a great deal of her own sculpture over the previous years, and in 1913, after her father died, her family had her placed in a psychiatric institution. She remained there until her death in 1943 and made no known work in those thirty years, which is why the surviving body of work is so small: fewer than a hundred pieces in total.

Camille Claudel’s Own Work, Piece by Piece

The Waltz

Two dancers caught mid-turn, leaning so far off balance that the piece only works because they hold each other up. A state inspector found it too sensual to fund, and she reworked it with drapery before it was accepted.

The Mature Age

A man is pulled away by an older woman while a young one kneels with her arms out. It is widely read as Rodin choosing between her and Rose Beuret, though Claudel never said so herself.

The Wave

Three small bronze bathers crouch under a wave carved from green onyx. The combination of materials was her own idea and there is nothing like it in Rodin’s work.

Plaster busts by Camille Claudel at the Musée Rodin — Photo: Romainbehar, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Busts and Studies

The plasters and studies are worth as much attention as the finished marbles. They show how she built a head, and one of them is her portrait of Rodin.

Seeing Her Work in the Hôtel Biron

Her room is indoors and easy to walk past on the way to the garden, which is the most common mistake visitors make here. Budget fifteen quiet minutes for it. Go close: the pieces are small, the surfaces are worked differently from the Rodins next door, and the difference is the whole point.

Musée Rodin: special tickets

Highlights

Avoid long entry lines for the museum.

Discover Rodin’s most celebrated creations like The Thinker and The Kiss.

Explore both the permanent displays and special temporary exhibits.

Stroll through the serene Sculpture Garden inside a historic 18th-century mansion.

Benefit from optional add-ons such as audio guides and interactive tablets at checkout.

Frequently Asked Questions About Camille Claudel

Who was Camille Claudel?

A French sculptor (1864 to 1943) who trained under Alfred Boucher, entered Rodin’s studio around 1884 and built a body of work entirely her own. Her brother was the writer Paul Claudel.

Can you see Camille Claudel’s work at the Musée Rodin?

Yes. The museum keeps a room for her sculpture, including The Waltz, The Wave and The Mature Age, shown as her work rather than as part of Rodin’s.

Why is her work in a museum named after Rodin?

Because he asked for it. His 1916 donation to the French state came with the condition that a room be devoted to her.

What is her most famous sculpture?

The Waltz is the best known, followed by The Mature Age and The Wave. All three are in Paris.

What was her relationship with Rodin?

She was his student, then his studio assistant and collaborator, and his lover for about a decade from the mid-1880s. The relationship ended in the early 1890s.

Is The Mature Age about Rodin?

It is usually read that way, as the moment he stayed with Rose Beuret. Claudel never confirmed the reading, and the piece works without it.

How many of her sculptures survive?

Fewer than a hundred. She destroyed much of her own work, and after 1913 she was in a psychiatric institution, where she stayed until she died in 1943 without sculpting again.

Is this the same as the Musée Camille Claudel?

No. A separate museum dedicated to her opened in 2017 in Nogent-sur-Seine, about an hour and a half southeast of Paris. The Musée Rodin holds its own group of her work.