The Waltz by Camile Claudel

The Waltz, developed in 1889-90, but not shown at the Salon until 1893, was a pretext for experimenting with different materials. The stoneware version with flambé glaze is an example of her investigations into colour and texture that border on art nouveau. In a letter to the Minister of Fine Arts, dated 8 February 1890, Claudel emphasized that the group had been “considered very good by several artists, in particular Monsieur Rodin”. Rodin’s influence was still apparent, less in the subject or the form than in the syntax that allowed figures to be reused differently in new works. Isolated and modified, the female figure from The Waltz thus became Fortune in the bronze cast in 1904.