CAMILLE CLAUDEL (1864-1943) La Valse dite aussi... Lot 3

CAMILLE CLAUDEL (1864-1943) La Valse dite aussi Les Valseurs, the Frits Thaulow version of La Valse conceived around [1895], our proof made from the plaster proof in the Frits Thaulow Collection and numbered E.A. IV/IV. Sculpted group. Bronze proof with a richly shaded brown-green patina. Post-mortem edition cast; after 1984. Inscribed C. CLAUDEL, numbered E.A. IV/IV and bears the founder's stamp on the front mound, marked Fonderie ROCHER on the side of the mound. Height: 42.5 cm - Length: 39 cm - Depth: 20 cm Provenance : Private collection, Paris. Important : A certificate of authenticity dated December 1, 2000 from Reine-Marie Paris, great-niece of Camille Claudel and author of several works on the artist, will be given to the buyer. Bibliography : - Reine-Marie Paris & Arnaud de La Chapelle - L'œuvre de Camille Claudel - Éditions Arhis & Adam Biro, Paris, 1990. An identical work, numbered 1/8, quoted on page 134. - Reine-Marie Paris - Camille Claudel re-trouvée, catalog raisonné - Éditions Aittouarès, Paris, 2000. Our work, catalog number 28-2, quoted on page 290. - Anne Rivière, Bruno Gaudichon, Danielle Ghanassia - Camille Claudel, catalog raisonné - Éditions Adam Biro, Paris, 2001. Our work, catalog number 33-9, quoted on page 113. - Reine-Marie Paris & Philippe Cressent - Camille Claudel : Intégrale des œuvres / Complete Works - Éditions Economica, Paris, 2014. An identical work, numbered 8/8 and referenced under catalog number 222, reproduced on page 458. - Reine-Marie Paris & Philippe Cressent - Camille Claudel, catalog raisonné - Éditions Economica, Paris, 2019. Our work, catalog number 66-9, cited on pages 462 and 834. CAMILLE CLAUDEL (1864-1943) La Valse La Valse, a group created between 1889 and 1895, is undoubtedly the most famous work by French sculptor Camille Claudel (1864-1943). The image of these two waltzers twirling on the verge of imbalance is undeniably in everyone's memory, and will elevate to the rank of master the pupil of the great Rodin (1840-1917), who had always left her in the shadows. The sculpted group was unanimously acclaimed from the moment of its presentation in 1893 to the Société nationale des Beaux-Arts, which hailed the work's "skilful imbalance "1, filled with the last vestiges of its passionate and overwhelming history with its famous "teacher", but already bearing witness to an assertive modernity, inherited from the artist's hard work. Thus, rather than giving form to the fashionable phenomenon embodied by the waltz in 19th-century society, Camille Claudel invested the theme of her personal passions, treating her group with such plastic audacity that she ended up asserting the autonomy of her genius. La Valse, sometimes titled Les Valseurs or Les Valseurs nus, was to undergo several variations and translations. Originally entirely undressed, in a first version no longer extant, Claudel's valseurs were later wrapped in a swirl of draperies - a development in response to comments from the Beaux-Arts inspectorate, which inspired the sculptor to shape the image of the group as we know it today. Dressing her waltzers, she used the modelling of the veil as a counterweight to push the figures' imbalance to the extreme - giving rise to a suspended, infinite movement, bursting with poetry, emerging out of all temporality. Overcoming the immobility of his "stationary statue", Claudel succeeded in translating the impression of rhythm into sculpture, and even more so, inviting the viewer to move, to seek out and grasp its full complexity2. Our bronze, cast on a plaster cast owned by the painter Fritz Thaulow, shows the waltzer stripped to the waist, covered by a drapery that envelops her legs and eventually merges with the base. Extending her arm, her hand is greeted by that of the waltzer, depicted entirely naked, revealing his bulging musculature. Taking root on the pedestal, he seems to break his balance, tilting his body to place a kiss on the base of his partner's neck; she prepares to receive it. Their gestures, following a perfect diagonal, form this ultimate twirl, whose climax skims the very edge of balance. The viewer is given the impression of a perpetual movement of the figures around a single axis, accentuated by the treatment of the drapery's modeling, which lends it a false sense of lightness. Claudel's waltzers seem to embody the universal idea of love, whose ever-fluctuating sensuality is perfectly in tune with the infinite movement of dance. A symbol of harmony and instability, the swirling waltz truly evokes the paradox of mutual desire between two beings, which can end at any moment. Coming soon,