Auguste Rodin | L'Adieu / Farewell, 1898

The Farewell or The Convalescent / L'adieu - is composed of Camille Claudel with short hair (1884) and two independent hands added in front of her face, the work attests to Rodin's passion for assemblages, evident in both his narrative and portraiture registers.

By placing her head and hands on a block of plaster, Rodin shed light on his thoughts about pedestals.

The construction causes Camille's face to stand out slightly from the plaster block and conveys a sense of slow absorption that contributes to the melancholy of the composition.

Auguste Rodin | L'Adieu /Farewell, 1898 | Musée Rodin, Paris

The present work recalls Thought (1886-89) and heralds the 20th-century investigations by sculptors such as Giacometti.

Auguste Rodin | Thought, 1886-89

Rodin described this marble in a 1913 letter to the American collector who was purchasing it:

"This sculpture, The Convalescent, is a bust of a young girl who forms herself and who is in a chaise lounge or in bed.

She speaks little, but thanks those who come to see her. She sends white marble kisses, and looks a little like a Greek marble.

This sculpture exists in one other marble and two bronzes. This is the first version to come out of my studio".

Auguste Rodin (French impressionist sculptor, 1840-1917)

The girl's features are those of Camille Claudel, as represented in a portrait of about 1884.

This portrait was the model used for the plaster version (now in the Musée Rodin) upon which this marble is based.

By the time this marble was carved, Camille had already withdrawn into her own obsessive, paranoid world.

In 1913, the year Rodin sent the work to America, Camille was forcibly confined to an insane asylum, where she spent the last thirty years of her life.

Auguste Rodin | L'Adieu / Farewell, 1898 (detail) | Musée Rodin, Paris

Auguste Rodin | L'Adieu /Farewell, 1898 | Musée Rodin, Paris

Auguste Rodin | L'Adieu /Farewell, 1898 | Musée Rodin, Paris