L’Âge Mûr (1902) by Camille Claudel (Musée d’Orsay)

This work reflects Claudel’s abandonment by Auguste Rodin. Paul Claudel said of it: “My sister Camille, Imploring, humiliated, on her knees, that superb, proud creature, and what is being wrenched from her, right there before your very eyes, is her soul.”

After 1905 Claudel appeared to be mentally ill and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. On 10 March 1913 at the initiative of her brother, she was admitted to the psychiatric hospital. There are records to show that while she did have mental outbursts, she was clear-headed while working on her art. Doctors tried to convince the family that she need not be in the institution, but still they kept her there.

Camille Claudel died on 19 October 1943, after having lived 30 years in the asylum, without a visit from her mother or sister. Her body was interred in the cemetery of Monfavet. No one from the family attended the ceremony (only a few members from the hospital staff). Later her remains were buried in a communal grave (the body was never claimed by her family).