With a tumultuous life story punctuated by dramatic beats—an affair with Auguste Rodin, the making of truly outstanding works of art, her 30-year internment in a psychiatric institution—it’s no wonder French sculptor Camille Claudel has gotten the Hollywood treatment.
Claudel died in 1943, and in the decades since, her story has captured the interest of filmmakers, writers, and musicians. Of course, every pop culture interpretation of Claudel must be taken with a dose of skepticism—the truth likely lies somewhere adjacent to the dramatized version of her life.
For a thoughtful peek into Claudel’s artistic talent and legacy, check out the new exhibition Camille Claudel, on view at the Getty Center through July 21. Meanwhile here are four ways creative minds have interpreted the artist’s story.
1. Camille Claudel, 1988
Claudel’s affair with Rodin and her mental health challenges are at the forefront of this French biopic, which was based on a biography by Claudel’s grandniece. To prepare for the film, star Isabelle Adjani worked with the family to gain their cooperation (they were particularly hesitant due to the film’s critical portrayal of Claudel’s brother, Paul, who committed her to the psychiatric institution). She also bought the sculpture rights and learned the basics of sculpture-making.
The film is “more concerned with her personality and passions than with her art, and so it is hard to judge, from the evidence on the screen, how good a sculptor she really was,” noted Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert in his review. Still, those looking for an introduction to Claudel’s brilliance and challenges may find the film enlightening. Adjani even earned an Academy Award nomination for her powerful portrayal of Claudel.
"My goal, my destination, was I wanted what was the best for her," Adjani told the Washington Post in 1990. "I really was very, very deeply sure of myself with this film. We didn't want to use her like she had been used before. We really wanted to use our hearts."
2. Camille Claudel 1915, 2013
This film focuses even more on Claudel’s mental health, portraying three days in her life at the psychiatric institution where she spent her final last 30 years. It’s a grim take that could be upsetting to some viewers—scenes were shot in an actual French institution, featuring real residents as Claudel’s fellow patients. But Juliette Binoche was lauded for her performance as Claudel, and the film sheds some much-needed light on the dehumanizing conditions of 20th-century psychiatric facilities. The film posits that Claudel may not have required such intense treatment and could have been released, if only her brother Paul had allowed it.
While the film doesn’t offer much in the way of depicting Claudel’s artistic talent, it does provide an element of realism, since the script was based on Claudel’s letters and medical records. “Her brother wrote that he went to see her two weeks before she died and he saw the happiest expression on her face, as if she had reached some sort of bliss before going,” Binoche told IndieWire. “So you think, wow! Life has taken everything away from her and she has been to the nothingness of her being, the poorest, the coldest, the most unjust thing that ever happened, and she was able to find a way of surviving. And that is fascinating.”
3. Death of a Little Girl with Doves, 1998
Composer Jeremy Beck wrote this “operatic soliloquy” to represent Claudel’s tumultuous and tragic life story. The four-movement work is divided into two parts, “In Paris” and “In the Asylum,” and features a soloist who sings Claudel’s inner thoughts. “The music and text often move rapidly through different moods and time frames, reflecting the instability of Claudel’s life and its ultimate dissolution,” Beck writes on his website.
The work was performed and recorded in 2004 by Canadian soprano Rayanne Dupuis with the Slovak Radio Symphony. Take a listen to the first movement in the video above.
In a more imaginative take on Claudel, author Carol Bruneau’s novel These Good Hands takes inspiration from the artist’s letters, reimagining them as a series of notes to her younger self and describing her career and mental illness. Interwoven among the letters is the imagined journal of a nurse who cares for Claudel during her final years at the psychiatric hospital. Together, the two stories paint a portrait of what the two women learned from each other, and the memories and emotions Claudel may have experienced towards the end of her life.
If these pop culture interpretations of Claudel’s life intrigued you, make sure to check out Getty’s exhibition, which features about 60 of her sculptures, including the masterpiece Age of Maturity, on loan from the Musée d’Orsay, and Getty’s recently acquired Torso of a Crouching Woman. And what have critics said about our show? The Los Angeles Times called it "magnificent," and Galerie described it as a "must-see show," explaining, "The exhibition celebrates the determination of a woman, cast as inferior and continuously censored for breaking the rigid social conventions of 19th century France, by highlighting her innovation, purpose, and originality."
