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The French sculptor Camille Claudel worked closely with Auguste Rodin and made works such as The Waltz and The Age of Maturity. In 1913 her family had her admitted to a psychiatric hospital near Paris. She was moved near Avignon the following year and remained institutionalised until her death in 1943.

Historical account — Musée Camille Claudel; Musée Rodin

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Claudel began working in Rodin's workshop in 1883, when she was about nineteen, and became his assistant, model and lover. Rodin would not leave his long-term partner, Rose Beuret; Claudel ended the intimate side of the relationship in 1892, and they stopped seeing each other in 1898. Working alone and short of money, she came to believe that Rodin was stealing her ideas and plotting against her. Her father, her main supporter in the family, died on 2 March 1913. Eight days later she was admitted to the Ville-Évrard asylum on papers signed by a doctor and her brother, the writer Paul Claudel. In 1914, as German troops advanced, she was moved to Montdevergues near Avignon. Doctors told her mother and brother several times that she need not be kept there, but they refused to take her home.

Türkçe oku
Fransız heykeltıraş Camille Claudel, Auguste Rodin'le yakın çalıştı; Vals ve Olgunluk Çağı gibi eserler yaptı. 1913'te ailesi onu Paris yakınlarındaki bir psikiyatri hastanesine yatırdı. Ertesi yıl Avignon yakınlarındaki bir hastaneye nakledildi ve 1943'te ölene dek orada kaldı.

Claudel, 1883'te, henüz on dokuz yaşlarındayken Rodin'in atölyesinde çalışmaya başladı; onun yardımcısı, modeli ve sevgilisi oldu. Rodin uzun yıllardır birlikte yaşadığı Rose Beuret'yi bırakmadı. Claudel 1892'de ilişkinin aşk yanını bitirdi, 1898'de de yolları tamamen ayrıldı. Tek başına ve parasız çalışırken Rodin'in fikirlerini çaldığına ve ona karşı bir şeyler çevirdiğine inanmaya başladı. Ailede onu en çok destekleyen babası 2 Mart 1913'te öldü. Sekiz gün sonra, bir doktorla kardeşi yazar Paul Claudel'in imzaladığı kâğıtlarla Ville-Évrard akıl hastanesine yatırıldı. 1914'te Alman ordusu yaklaşırken Avignon yakınlarındaki Montdevergues'e nakledildi. Doktorlar annesine ve kardeşine, onun orada tutulmasına gerek olmadığını defalarca söyledi; ama aile onu eve almayı hep reddetti.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Camille Claudel
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