Camille CLAUDEL and her masterpieces La Valse, La Pensée and La Fortune.

Camille CLAUDEL (1864.1943)

Autograph letter signed to Gustave Geffroy.

Two pages in-8° on water green paper. Autograph envelope.

[Paris. March or April 1905, depending on postmark]

« I prefer that you don't show him my Waltz. »

Superb letter from Camille Claudel evoking three of her masterpieces, La Valse, La Pensée and La Fortune.

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“ My dear Geffroy, I have just seen Blot, we made a little deal. He will come to see you tomorrow morning, Thursday: I prefer that you do not show him my Waltz; he would like it and I no longer have the right to sell it to the publisher having already sold it a long time ago to Siot-Decauville. So please don't let him see it (unless you have already spoken to him about it). He bought me Fortune and Thought. I was afraid that my last letter had not reached you. I hope to see you on a Thursday or Sunday afternoon. Sincere friendships. C. Claudel. I find your book more and more beautiful, your man is a poet and not a politician [ L'Enfermé, biography of Auguste Blanqui by Geffroy].

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Gustave Geffroy (1855.1926), journalist and art critic, close to Rodin, immediately understood the artistic potential of Camille Claudel and ardently defended her work. Never ceasing to promote Claudel's “beautiful scholarly work” in his articles, Geffroy took up, in 1888, the cause of Çacountala exhibited at the Salon of French Artists, and was an immense defender of the work during the controversy surrounding this group, in Châteauroux, in 1895.

As a true protector, gifted with unwavering kindness, it was this same Geffroy who, after helping Camille sell her bust of Rodin, introduced her to Eugène Blot who would exhibit eleven of his works in his gallery.

Camille gave Geffroy a copy of La Valse on February 26, 1905.

Bibliography : Camille Claudel – Letters and correspondents (RM Paris / P. Cressent – ​​Éditions Culture Economica), pages 305 and 306.