(Credit: Wikimedia)
A lost bronze sculpture by the famous Camille Claudel was sold on 16th February for €3.1million.
The sculpture, made in 1907, was first found under a cloth by auctioneer Matthieu Semont in September 2024, whilst inventorying a lavish apartment near the Eiffel Tower that had been vacant for 15 years.
This is one of the six iterations of the sculpture. Four of the other editions have been lost and another is held by the Claudel Museum in Nogent-sur-Seine.
L’Age Mûr (The Age of Maternity), thought to have been lost for over a hundred years, depicts an allegory of life, with fragments of truth, inspired by Claudel’s own tragic life. It portrays a man being guided by an older woman away from a young kneeling woman begging for him to stay.
Specialists have said that the young woman displays features of Claudel herself and is supposed to represent her break-up from the famous sculptor Auguste Rodin, which led to Claudel’s psychiatric recovery. Claudel trained with Rodin from 1883 and became his muse, confidante and eventually his lover.
Often associated with Rodin, Claudel has come into her own as a feminist icon. Her life has been portrayed in several films, like the French biopic of 1988 that was nominated for two Oscars and the 2013 adaptation, starring Juliette Binoche, which was also critically acclaimed.
The sculpture was sold at an auction in Orléans in France, at 50% above its pre-sale estimate. It is the second-highest ever paid work by Claudel. The record was £5.1 million for the first edition of Le Valse (The Waltz), a bronze of a dancing couple, bought at a Sotheby’s auction in 2013.
The identity of the buyer, whether they be a person or institution, is yet to be revealed to the general public.
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