Camille Claudel

1864 - 1943   French sculptor
She was educated with her brother, Paul Claudel, and by her teens she was a skilled sculptor. In 1881 she moved with her family to Paris and entered the Colarossi Academy. The following year she met the renowned sculptor Auguste Rodin; she is best known today as his student, collaborator, model, and mistress. She contributed whole figures and parts of figures to Rodin's projects, particularly The Gates of Hell Fascinated with stone and soil as a child, as a young woman she studied at the Académie Colarossi with sculptor Alfred Boucher. At the time, the Lacole des Beaux-Arts barred women from enrolling to study. In 1882, Claudel rented a workshop with other young women, mostly English, including Jessie Lipscomb. In 1883, she met Auguste Rodin, who taught sculpture to Claudel and her friends. Around 1884, she started working in Rodin's workshop. Claudel became a source of inspiration, his model, his confidante and lover. She never lived with Rodin, who was reluctant to end his 20-year relationship with Rose Beuret.

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