camille claudel - biography (3)

1886

Camille visits the family Lipscomb at Peterborough in England. 
At the same time, Rodin travels also to England and there visits his pupils at the residence of the Lipscomb family. In May/June he stays in London with Gustave Natorp.
In several letters, which are dated in this year, Jessie and Rodin discuss the troubled relation between Camille and Auguste. Jessie acts as a kind of intermediary between them. Auguste vacillates between Rose Beuret and their common son on the one hand, his love to Camille on the other hand. In a letter of 12 October, he promises Camille a "liaison indissoluble": he will only accept Camille as his pupil, support her work exclusively, give up all his contacts with his former models and other women, make a six months journey with Camille and marry her afterwards. Although the letter is written and signed by Rodin, it is obviously dictated by Camille; this curious contract is never fulfilled.
In August, Camille visits Dr. Jean with Jessie Lipscomb and Paul at the island of Wight; she shows them some charcoal drawings.
Camille exhibits at Nottingham Castle together with Jessie Lipscomb; 'Portrait of Jessie' (terra-cotta).
In August she spends some time at Villeneuve.
S.A.F.: 'Bust of her sister Louise', which is named 'Jeune Fille' in bronze; oriented by the style of the 18th century. The journalist Paul Leroi warns her: "… il faut que la jeune artiste soit bien exclusivement Mlle Claudel et non un reflet."
Rodin executes another bust of Camille: 'La Pensée', which symbolises thought captivated in material.

1887

Louis-Prosper Claudel now works at Compiègne.
Camille makes three oil paintings ('Portrait of Maria Paillette'; the Portraits 
of Eugénie Plé and of Victoire Brunet have disappeared) and a pastel of Louise Claudel.
S.A.F.: she shows the portrait of his brother as Young Roman; the Baroness Nathaniel de Rothschild purchases this bust at the exhibition.
'La Jeune Fille à la gerbe', terra-cotta.
Since this year, Camille also works after the male model, like the study of 'L'Homme penché'.
Some photos of the atelier, made by Jessie, show other male figures and also the sculpture of the 'Young Lady sitting'. This figure shows astonishing 
parallels to Rodin’s 'Galatée' which proves the close co-operation between the two artists. 
Jessie Lipscomb exhibits a bust of Camille at Nottingham.
Together with Rodin, she travels in Touraine.
On 26 December, Jessie Lipscomb marries William Elborn and returns to England; the atelier Jessie shared with Camille is dissolved.

1888

Camille moves to the 113th boulevard d'Italie.
Rodin rents the Clos-Payen-Folie-Neubourg at 68 boulevard d’Italie as a studio and works there together with Camille. In the same house once lived the famous artist love couple Alfred de Musset and George Sand.
'Bust of Ferdinand de Massary', the husband of her sister Louise, in plaster. 
She also works on the 'Bust of Rodin' and makes pastels of her brother and sister.
S.A.F.: Distinction ("mention honorable") for 'Sakountala' in plaster; the sculpture shows the reunion of a courting couple. Rodin's 'Eterenal Idol' (1889) appears to echo the same formal idea. Because the two sculptors work and live so closely together, it is difficult to tell who influenced whom.