Illustration by Maria Manhattan
Camille Claudel was born on December 8, 1864 in Fère-en- Tardenois, Aisne, in northern France, and moved with her family to Paris in the early 1881. At an early age, Camille became a student of sculpture at the Académie Colarossi, one of the few art schools open to women at the time. She was apprentice, muse and lover to the great Auguste Rodin. Claudel was known for her physical beauty, her ability to convey drama through marble and bronze, and for her deep understanding of the human form.
