Camille Claudel, Rêve au coin du feu (Dreaming by the Fireside), 1899, Legion of Honor

Beyond the Paint

Transcript This sculpture may be smaller than most of the statues and portrait busts in the Legion of Honor’s galleries, but to me, it’s just as powerful. This sculpture was made by Claudel in 1899, at the cusp of a new century. Its title translates to “dreaming by the fireside.” And it’s an introspective work, what Claudel called “sketches from nature” of a woman resting by a fire, engaged in an intimate — almost dreamlike — act, free from the burdens of the outside world, and on her own terms. Claudel was often inspired by what she called the “small incidents of life.” She was known to walk through the streets and promenades of Paris, catching moments that would spark endless ideas for future compositions. She was born in 1864 and was one of the first women to complete her training at the Académie Colarossi in Paris. Claudel, famously, worked as a studio assistant for Auguste Rodin, and the pair had a passionate love affair. Both used each other as their subjects and muses — immortalizing their love in sensual compositions, intertwined and dancing, but also in subjects that reflected their complicated relationship, from loss to abandonment. Despite her influence on him, critics continued to position her as his follower — and, to a degree, they still do to this day, with his name towering over hers. Her frustration at this injustice led to her distancing herself from him, and taking her work in a new direction. But following this departure, Rodin and his community largely cut her off, cementing her outcast status in a tight-knit art world. The piece you're looking at now was made on both practical and commercial grounds and reflects Claudel's financial struggles. Like many of her pieces, this work was reproduced numerous times, in this case, 65. Due to its small scale, it could double as a nightlight. Looking closely, you can see the thinness of the marble — when lit from behind, the logs illuminate. Only a matter of years later, in 1913, Claudel entered an asylum, where she remained until her death in 1943. Although her brother staged a posthumous exhibition of her work eight years after her death, it was derided and dismissed. Her work was not taken seriously again until after the feminist era of the 1970s, and much of it is only coming to light now. Image: Camille Claudel, Rêve au coin du feu (Dreaming by the Fireside), 1899. Marble, 8 3/4 x 12 1/2 x 9 3/4 in. (22.2 x 31.8 x 24.8 cm). Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Museum purchase, Gift of Marie-Joséphe de Touzalin Dunaway, 2018.88