A rare bronze sculpture by Camille Claudel was discovered in an abandoned Paris apartment. The sculpture, titled “La Jeunesse et L’Age Mûr” (The Age of Maturity), sold at auction in France for €3.7 million ($3.8 million). This was more than double its pre-sale estimate.
The sculpture depicts a man and two women: one aged and guiding him ahead, and the other young and kneeling, as if begging him to return. Claudel created several versions of this scene. It has been interpreted as an allegory for life’s inevitable losses.
It may also reflect a personal tragedy—the dissolution of Claudel’s relationship with her teacher and lover, Auguste Rodin. Following the breakup, Claudel suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed for psychiatric treatment. The older woman in the sculpture may represent her romantic rival Rose Beuret, Rodin’s housekeeper and eventual wife.
Claudel sculpture fetched record price
The bronze was found by Philocale’s auctioneer Matthieu Semont while inventorying the assets of the apartment for its inheritor. How it came to be forgotten there remains unclear.
Claudel’s artistic achievements largely languished in obscurity until the release of a 1988 biopic starring Isabel Adjani and Gerard Depardieu. After that, her market interest rose, with individual pieces typically pricing around $1 million. Only three other bronze versions of “La Jeunesse et L’Age Mûr” are known to exist.
The Musée Camille Claudel in Nogent-sur-Seine owns one from the same mold. Two large casts belong to the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée Rodin, respectively. The bronze sold on Sunday at Philocale, an Orleans auction house, now holds the title of the second most-expensive piece by Claudel ever sold.
The top record-holder is a single-casting version of “The Waltz”, a bronze dancing couple, sold for £5.1 million at Sotheby’s London in June 2013. In a statement, Semont said that the anonymous buyer of “La Jeunesse et L’Age Mûr”, who won the bid via telephone, would be announced to the public later.