CAMILLE CLAUDEL

There is a lovely little exhibition devoted to Camille Claudel at the moment. Wandering around, I felt touched by the passion and longing in her works, no doubt a reflection of her life with Rodin. I’m no feminist (in fact, I love being wined and dined and having doors opened for me), but watching the (very French) accompanying video, I wondered why she is still defined in terms of Rodin. Arguably he is a great, great sculptor (and, of course, they were lurvers) but in my opinion CC’s work seems quite capable of being appraised in its own right. Then again, maybe it’s because after Rodin and Claudel split, she (tortured soul) was committed to an asylum never to sculpt again and so her work was forever frozen in his shadow. Anyway, in case you get the wrong idea, the exhibition is actually very bright and airy with lots of naked bodies (Sakountala) and movement (The Waltz) and beautifully-sculpted heads (Young Roman) and fun (Les Causeuses).