Portrait of Camille Claudel

After the 1988 release of Bruno Nuytten’s biographical film Camille Claudel, the sculptress became widely associated with actress Isabelle Adjani; her real face is less familiar. Most of the few photographs of her―such as this portrait by César, undoubtedly the most famous―show her as a very young woman.

This portrait was taken when Camille was almost twenty and had recently enrolled in the sculpture classes at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris; it shows her as a fresh-faced young woman with a frank expression and an unaffected style of dress and hair. During the same period, around 1884, she joined Rodin’s studio, where assistants and practitioners were needed to work on an important state commission, The Gates of Hell. This photo is from Rodin’s private collection.

Rodin himself sculpted several portraits of Camille Claudel; they show the same round, harmonious face as in the photograph, but with a more thoughtful air.