by Caroline Legrand
Camille Claudel (1864–1943) La Petite Châtelaine (The Little Chatelaine), posthumous bronze cast, curved braid version, nuanced brown patina, signed "C. Claudel" on the back, numbered "HC 2/4" and bearing the octagonal stamp of the founder Delval, 30.5 x 30.5 x 20.5 cm/12.00 x 12.00 x 8.07 in. Estimate: €35,000/40,000
Camille Claudel presented this sculpture in 1894, first at La Libre esthétique ("The Free Aesthetics", an artistic society founded in 1893) in Brussels under the title of Contemplation, then at the Société nationale des beaux-arts exhibition in Paris as Portrait d'une petite chatelaine (Portrait of a Little Chatelaine). The second, bronze version quickly found buyers. Alphonse de Rothschild bought a copy cast by Gruet in 1895... read more.
