camille claudel - biography (4)

1889

The world exhibition shows some pieces of the art of Far East with lasting influence on French art. 

Camille is very impressed by the print graphic of the Japanese artist Hokusai. She recites some motifs like 'The Wave' in her work.
Camille shares her passion for Hokusai with the composer Claude Debussy, which strengthens their friendship.
Rodin takes part in founding the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (S.N.B.A.). 
Rodin and Monet have a joint exhibition at the Gallery Georges Petit.
Camille executes the 'Bust of Rodin' in plaster and 'Psaume'.
The town Fère-en-Tardenois refuses Camille's participation at the competition for a monument about the French Revolution.
S.N.B.A.: 'Bust of Charles Lhermitte', son of the painter Léon Lhermitte. 
First version of 'Tête d'or', portrait of Paul Claudel.

1890 

In the summer Camille stays with Rodin in the Château de l'Islette at 
Azay-le-Rideau. In this and the following year she does not participate at 
the Salon. The reasons may be her concentration on the works of Rodin and the troubles in their relationship.

1891

Rodin decides to follow the traces of Balzac to get the best inspiration for his planned monument. Together with Rodin Camille travels in the Anjou and the Touraine. 
First version of 'La Ville' of Paul Claudel.

1892

Camille moves to 11 Avenue de La Bourdonnais.
Camille spends some time at the Château d'Islette in Touraine, where she had been with Rodin before, and invites him to visit her:

"Monsieur Rodin, 

with nothing else to do, I write you again. You can't imagine how beautiful the weather is at Islette. Today I ate in the middle-room (...). Madame Courcelles has proposed, that if it is agreeable for you, you can eat there from time to time, even all the time if you wish (actually, I think it would please her), and it's so beautiful there! (...)
If you are very nice and keep your promise, we can have this paradise together. You can have any room you wish for your work. I think the old woman will be at our beck and call. (...)
It would be awfully sweet if you would buy me a bathing suit, two-piece, dark-blue with white trim (get a medium) from the Louvre or the Bon Marché (...). 
I sleep nude in order to make myself think you are there, but when I wake it's not the same.

PS: And especially don't deceive me anymore."

Grunfeld and Butler differ on the point if Rodin had actually deceived Camille with other women by then; Grunfeld quotes Octave Mirbeau, who in July 1889 described Rodin as " himself the fearsome satyr he depicts in his erotic sculpture" and reported to Edmond de Goncourt how Rodin, when visiting Monet, had stared at his four beautiful daughters, so that each of them was obliged to get up and leave the dinner table.

Whether Rodin actually had other side affairs with his models or Camille's suspicions were merely rooted in paranoia (as Butler believes), Rodin's continuing relationship with Rose alone was a source of permanent jealousy. The same year, Camille starts drawing biting caricatures on Rodin, unable to free himself from this "collage".
Reine-Marie Paris suggests, Camille may have stayed at the Château d'Islette to recover from an abortion. In 1976, Romain Rolland's widow reported that Paul Claudel had told her Camille had been pregnant once by Rodin and had had an abortion, but there is no definitive evidence for this. Camille's friend Jessie Lipscomb later purports however, Rodin had two children with Camille, who were raised in a boarding school. Judith Cladel even suspected, they had four children, but Rodin denied her question:

"These are just stories. In that case my duty would have been clear."  

S.N.B.A.: 'Bust of Rodin', bronze.
Camille takes part at the exhibition Blanc et Noir with one work.
Elaboration of La Valse.

Camille is the model of 'La Convalescente' and 'L'Adieu' by Rodin.
First version of 'La Jeune Fille Violaine' by Paul Claudel. 

1893

'Torso of Clotho', 'La Petite Châtelaine', plaster, and 'Aurore', plaster.
Rodin takes the chair of Dalou as president of the section sculpture at the S.N.B.A.
Camille becomes a member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
S.N.B.A.: 'La Valse' and 'Clotho'; Octave Mirbeau and Gustave Geffroy commend both works. To get more distance from Rodin’s influence in modeling, she works out similar motifs in a different manner. More and more she finds to the natural and non-allegorical description of humans – her own style of expression. She includes scenes from daily life in narrative compositions.
In April, Paul becomes the vice-consul in New York, and in December Consul Suppléant in Boston.