This 1905 rare bronze by the French sculptress
Camille Claudel is the earliest edition ever seen
on the open market. This is the second of an
edition limited to 18, the first cast having been
kept by the owners of the foundry.
L’Abandon (Sakountala) was inspired by Claudel’s
passionate love affair with Auguste Rodin.
Rodin was already famous when, aged 42,
he met the 18
year-old Claudel
at an artist’s studio
in Paris in 1883.
Soon afterwards,
they began an affair
which was to
last 15 years and
was the catalyst for some of their finest work. L’Abandon was originally
conceived in terracotta in 1886, only three
years after they began their affair.
The bronze is based on the eponymous
5th century Hindu legend in which the heroine,
Sakountala, loses the affection of her beloved
prince only to regain it once more. It depicts a
man on his knees in front of a seated woman
and is an ironic role reversal of Rodin’s
1881 sculpture Eternal Spring where it
is the woman who kneels. Claudel’s L’Abandon
is a powerful symbol of tenderness, equality and
hope contrasting strongly with the machismo
of Rodin’s work. It also evokes Rodin’s own
words to Claudel in a letter written in late 1884 or
early 1885: “My very dearest, down on both knees
before your beautiful body which I embrace.”
