Camille CLAUDEL – Very rare autographed business card

Camille CLAUDEL (1864.1943)

Autographed business card to Gustave Geffroy.

Two pages in-32°. No place or date.

On a card engraved with her name, Miss Camille Claudel .

Unpublished document in the C. Claudel Correspondence published by Reine Marie Paris.

A moving card of Camille, alone, fragile, and in search of protection.

"Miss Camille Claudel  is very grateful to see that Mr. Geffroy has not forgotten her and continues to provide her with the protection she so desperately needs."

___________________________ 

Gustave Geffroy (1855-1926), journalist and art critic, a close friend of Rodin, immediately grasped Camille Claudel's artistic potential and ardently defended her work. Constantly promoting Camille Claudel's "beautiful and sophisticated work" in his articles, Geffroy championed the Çacountala exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1888 and was a staunch defender of the work during the controversy surrounding this group in Châteauroux in 1895. A true protector, endowed with unwavering benevolence, it was Geffroy who, after helping Camille sell her Rodin bust, introduced her to Eugène Blot, who would exhibit eleven of her works in his gallery.

From the profound troubles that Camille Claudel experienced from 1905 onwards, we know how indispensable the support of a critic-friend as influential as Gustave Geffroy was.