Claudel, Camille (Camille-Rosalie Claudel) [key], 1864–1943, French sculptor. The sister of the writer Paul Claudel, she studied at the Colarossi Academy (now the Grande Chaumière) in Paris, where she met the sculptor Auguste Rodin (1883), becoming his assistant, muse, and lover. She contributed to many of his projects and also pursued an artistic career of her own, exhibiting at numerous salons and galleries. After her relationship with Rodin ended (c.1898), she became reclusive and was eventually institutionalized (1911). Although she destroyed much of her work, Claudel's remaining sculptures, in marble and bronze, are displayed in the Camille Claudel Museum in Nogent-sur-Seine, France, and in the Rodin Museum in Paris.
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