"From today's date, October 12^th, 1886, onwards I will have Melle Camille Claudel

as my sole student and I will protect her, and her alone, with all the means I

have at my disposal, as will my friends, and more particulary my influential friends,

who are also her friends. I will not accept any other students [...] I will no longer

go to Mme X's house, and will no longer teach her sculpting. After the exhibition

in May, we will leave for Italy and will stay there for at least 6 months, living together

in an indissoluble relationship, after which Melle Claudel shall be my wife."

Rodin commits himself, he agrees to everything, probably under the influence of

Melle Camille. Is this contract an erotic game by which he puts himself entirely at

the disposal of his mistress? It is one of the most powerful documents showing the

passion that linked the Master to his student, one of the fundamental milestone of

this "lamentable story", as Paul Claudel, Camille's brother described it.

Camille Claudel & Rodin , a story in three stages. Antoinette Le Normand-Romain

regulates her analysis in three periods, from the sculptures of the two artists:

Sakountala , and ambitious and romantic work reflects the shared passion; Fate and

the Convalescent are in the very heart of the game of crossed references and

inspirations; Niobid , finally, hurt, broken, nostalgic, symbolizes the failure of Camille

both as a woman and as an artist.

Time will heal everything draw objectively the aesthetic consequences of the

tempestuous links that existed between the two sculptors.