A version of “Mature Age”, a famous sculpture by Camille Claudel, was found by chance in an uninhabited Parisian apartment and will be offered at auction in Orléans on February 16, we learned on Monday from the auctioneer who discovered it.
Matthieu Semont, responsible for the inventory of this Parisian apartment on September 17, explained to AFP that he “was overcome with emotion” when he “recognized” this bronze, confirming press information.
“It’s more of an encounter than a discovery, it’s magical, I cried. This bronze, of which we had lost track for more than a century, is of astonishing quality,” adds -he.
He says: “I came as part of an estate inventory as I do every day, with a notary, in an apartment plunged into darkness, closed for around fifteen years, with a lot of dust. J “I lifted the cloth that covered the sculpture and I immediately recognized part of the sculpture, the imploring one (a young woman on her knees pleading, editor's note), for having worked on this work 25 years ago.”
“We would have imagined that a bronze like this would have been placed in a place where it would be referenced and exhibited. There, it was delivered to us without prior notice,” he is surprised.
The sculpture represents a cycle of life, embodied by three characters including a kneeling young woman, symbolizing the heartbreaking passion between the sculptor and Auguste Rodin, according to several art historians.
Aborted commission from the State to Camille Claudel, the work also evokes her descent into hell after her breakup with the famous sculptor “who never stopped loving her and cried when discovering her imploring at the foundryman Eugène Blot “, underlines the auctioneer.
Also entitled “Destiny”, “The Path of Life” or “La Fatality”, it is a major work of which only a few copies exist, including two in the Orsay and Rodin museums in Paris and another at the Camille Claudel museum in Nogent-sur-Seine (Aube).
Measuring 61.5 x 85 x 37.5 centimeters, it is signed “C. Claudel” and bears the stamp of the founder and unwavering friend of the sculptor, “Eugène Blot Paris”, as well as the number 1 on the feet of the imploring woman. It was exhibited and sold in 1908 and probably melted down at the very beginning of the 20th century, according to Mr. Semont.
Estimated between 1.5 and 2 million euros, it will be offered at auction by its auction house, Philocale, on February 16 at Orléans town hall.
In November 2017, 17 works by the sculptor had achieved a triple result compared to the estimate, with 12 pre-emptions and 1.187 million euros for another famous bronze, “L'Abandon” (1886), double its estimate low.
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