Camille CLAUDEL is delighted with her marble work of La Petite Châtelaine.

Camille CLAUDEL (1864.1943)

Autograph letter signed to Pauline Ménard Dorian, wife of Georges Hugo.

Unpublished letter.

Six pages ½ in-8°. [Paris, August or September 1894].

“I went straight to my worker’s house to see my little marble bust. This time the marble is very beautiful.”

A long and precious letter – unpublished – from Camille Claudel, recounting her epic return journey from Guernsey, and exulting in the beauty of one of her masterpieces, her small marble bust, La Petite Châtelaine .

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Dear Madam, We arrived in Paris this morning after a very unusual journey. The crossing from Guernsey to Cherbourg was very good and I didn't get seasick thanks to Miss Dora's lemons. We took a short walk in Alderney (a very deserted and wild country whose glacial air cured my cold instantly). In Cherbourg we missed the first train, we took the six o'clock train which was supposed to take us to Paris at 4 o'clock in the morning. Unfortunately, a goods train abandoned on a track blocked our way and we suddenly woke up at 1 o'clock in the morning in the middle of a pine forest (in a country that remains unknown). We stayed there for 4 hours without being able to move while six trains arrived to join ours; It was a real procession of glow-worms and all the locomotives were sighing one after the other with a very unhappy and very tired air ach… ach… ach… That's how we saw the day break. Finally at 5 o'clock they decided to free us and we arrived in Paris at 8.

From the station I went straight to my worker's to see my little marble bust. The marble this time is very beautiful ; I had already been written four times to come and see it before continuing; it is not yet finished and I will not have it for ten days ; I found my clay a little dry but nothing unfortunate happened in my absence. The air in Paris is very hot and heavy, I am still quite stunned to find myself between the four walls of my studio with all the memories of the beautiful countryside and the sea of ​​Guernsey still in my eyes. I feel a great surprise to find myself so alone and to no longer be able to talk to anyone.

I have learned that my brother-in-law and my sister are with my parents; so I will not leave immediately and I will be able to work here for a while . I will keep an excellent memory of the charming vacation that you gave me and that, in spite of myself, I was unable to prolong any longer. I am happy to have been able to become better acquainted with you all and to have found in you such good, indulgent friends.

Please accept, dear Madam, the assurance of my sincere gratitude. Remember me to Mons. Georges Hugo, Mons. Léon Daudet and all your family whose kind welcome I will not forget. Camille Claudel.

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Camille stayed in Guernsey in 1894, at La Marcherie, the home of Mrs. Ménard Dorian, her host, wife of Georges Hugo.

Pauline Ménard-Dorian (1870-1941), a woman of letters, held a literary salon in Paris. Her mother Aline's republican salon regularly brought together prominent figures of the time, including Rodin, and it was probably through Rodin that Camille met the Ménard-Dorians, who invited her to La Marcherie , where she met Georges Hugo. On this occasion, she created "a witty statuette of soft jade-green stone" of Hugo, as Mathias Morhardt noted in a letter to Judith Cladel dated August 19, 1934. This work has not yet been found.