Living In Male-dominated Society Drove Her Insane

Nov. 17, 2007 - PRLog -- ATLANTA. Ga. – In 1883, established French sculptor Auguste Rodin met 19-year-old Camille Claudel. He taught her sculpture. She started working in his workshop, becoming his lover and inspiration. Because Rodin was reluctant to end his 20-year relationship with Rose Beuret, Claudel never lived with him. But she became pregnant, lost the child in an accident and went into deep depression. She was ultimately committed to an asylum for the insane.
   Author Alma H. Bond, a New York psychologist who has written 11 nonfiction and fiction works, has taken on the job of writing Claudel’s story.
   According to Southern Review of Books editor Noel Griese, “In her biographical novel, Bond details how women in the 1800s were often seen as second-class citizens in the worlds of business and art. Rarely have history books exposed the severe impact of such a society on the female psyche as does Camille Claudel: A Novel.”
   In 1892, perhaps after an unwanted abortion, Claudel ended intimacy with Rodin, although they saw one another regularly until 1898. A brilliant sculptress in her own right, she exhibited her works beginning in 1903 at the Salon des Artistes français.
   From 1905 on, Claudel exhibited signs of mental instability, especially paranoia. She destroyed many of her statues, disappearing for long periods of time. She accused Rodin of stealing her ideas and of leading a conspiracy to kill her.
   In 1913, at the initiative of her younger brother, she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in France. Her admission form was signed by a doctor and her brother. Some historians speculate that her brother, also an artist, felt overshadowed by her and wanted her out of the way.
   Claudel died on Oct. 19, 1943, after having lived 30 years in the asylum at Montfavet. Though she destroyed much of her art work, about 90 statues, sketches and drawings survive.
    “Alma Bond is eminently qualified to relate the true-to-life story of the great sculptress who was driven to insanity by a male-dominated society that refused to recognize her talent,” says Southern Review editor Griese.
   The book is available from Anvil Publishers of Atlanta, Ga., at bookstores and at online outlets.

Website: www.anvilpub.net