Camille Claudel’s famous bronze sculpture The Age of Maturity depicts a young women being left behind by her lover, who walks ahead with an older woman.
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A rare bronze sculpture by the French artist Camille Claudel that was lost for more than a century will soon be heading to the auction block. Titled The Age of Maturity, the artwork was recently rediscovered in an abandoned apartment, and it’s expected to fetch as much as $2.1 million.
Created in the 1890s, the piece depicts a man and two women, one old and one young. The older woman leads her lover forward. The younger is behind him on her knees, reaching out to him.
Auctioneer Matthieu Semont was conducting an inventory of a Parisian apartment that hadn’t been occupied in 15 years when he discovered the missing sculpture under a sheet. He says he cried when he first saw the bronze, calling the moment magical, as he tells Agence France-Presse.
When and how the bronze was placed in that apartment remains a mystery. After Semont’s find, French sculpture experts from Cabinet Lacroix-Jeannest researched and authenticated the piece. It will be sold at Philocale Auction House in Orléans, France, on February 16.
While Claudel’s name is not as well-known in the United States as it is in France, her star has been rising over the past decade. The Art Institute of Chicago and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles recently featured exhibitions of her work.
“Celebrated for her brilliance during a time when women sculptors were rare, Camille Claudel … was among the most daring and visionary artists of the late 19th century,” per the Getty Museum’s website.
Claudel is also known for her tumultuous connection with the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Rodin was not only Claudel’s mentor, but also her lover and her rival. After their relationship ended, she was eventually admitted to a psychiatric facility due to an ongoing mental illness.
Experts speculate that the sculpture is autobiographical, with the male figure representing Auguste Rodin.
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Some speculate that The Age of Maturity has autobiographical elements. According to Alexandre Lacroix, a sculpture expert who helped authenticate the artwork, the girl on her knees resembles Claudel, while the male figure references Rodin’s Burghers of Calais, per the Art Newspaper’s Claudia Barbieri Childs. The older woman could represent Rose Beuret, Rodin’s longtime partner and eventual wife. Rodin was ultimately unwilling to leave Beuret for Claudel.
“Executed in Claudel’s characteristically powerful expressionist style, it lends itself to multiple interpretations: an allegory of life’s trajectory but also of Claudel’s personal tragedy,” writes the Art Newspaper.
The sculpture was cast by the foundry owner and art collector Eugène Blot, who acquired exclusive ownership of the piece and helped promote Claudel’s work, according to Artnet’s Richard Whiddington. Blot created six casts of The Age of Maturity at one-third scale, which he exhibited on several occasions.
Only three other bronzes of the complete work are currently known. One, cast from the same mold, is held by the Musée Camille Claudel in Nogent-sur-Seine. Two larger casts of the sculpture are held by the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée Rodin. Additionally, several versions depicting only the kneeling girl have survived.
