The work will be included under the number 2023-0585MB in the Catalogue critique de l’œuvre de Camille Claudel (The Critical Catalogue of the Works of Camille Claudel), which is currently being prepared at the Galerie Malaquais under the direction of Ève Turbat.

 

According to documents established in 1937 by Eugène Blot,[1] Camille Claudel’s dealer, who also editioned her works, the Dream by the Fireside was cast in an edition of 65, which makes it Claudel’s most reproduced model, as it includes a few more proofs than The Implorer, Small Version. Dream by the Fireside, though cast in a greater number than any other sculpture by Camille Claudel, remains extremely rare, both in museums and on the art market, and that is not the least of its paradoxes.

 

From the beginning of the 1890s to the year 1900, Camille Claudel worked on small subjects that she called her “sketches based on life.” These subjects were the products of observations of the concrete world that the artist transposed and miniaturized. The Gossips (1893-1905), Woman Reading a Letter (circa 1895-1897), and The Wave (1897-1903) all belong to this series, bookended by the two Cheminée (Fireplace), the title used by the artist herself.

The first of the two fireplaces, created in 1898, is Deep Thought, also known as The Yule Log. It represents a woman kneeling before a fireplace, leaning her head against its mantlepiece. It was shown in bronze[2] at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1898: “36- La profonde pensée [Deep thought] (croquis d’après nature, statuette bronze)[3]. It was shown again, this time in marble, at the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris. Later, in 1905, it was included in the exhibition of Camille Claudel’s works organized by Eugène Blot’s gallery at their premises in the boulevard de la Madeleine. That version was one of Blot’s edition, which is to say, in marble and bronze.

The second fireplace, Dream by the Fireside, described here, shows a woman seated on a chair with her head leaning on the lintel of the fireplace. It was commissioned in marble, most likely in 1899 by the Countess of Maigret, Camille Claudel’s principal patron at this time. The following year, the work was shown at the Universal Exhibition held in Paris.[4]

It’s useful to recall the position that Camille Claudel, at the age of 35, occupied in the world of French statuary at the beginning of the 20^th century. She was so much in Rodin’s shadow that she was barely visible, while Rodin, in his sixties, was at the height of his glory. In addition, she suffered from isolation, recurrent financial difficulties, and deteriorating mental health.

Like Deep Thought, Dream by the Fireside was also shown later at the exhibition of her works at Eugène Blot’s gallery in 1905. In that case, it was a proof in marble and bronze that belonged to her dealer’s edition.

The catalogue from the exhibition at Eugène Blot’s gallery does not specify that the Fireplace pieces are composed of two different materials, though the sculpture is entirely in bronze, with the exception of the fireplace itself, which is in marble. Furthermore, the catalogue states that Deep Thought was cast in a limited edition of 50 proofs, while no limit to the number of proofs of Dream by the Fireside is mentioned. Neither work seems to have been included in two later exhibitions of Camille Claudel’s works that the Eugène Blot gallery organized in 1907 and 1908. That said, after the 1905 exhibition, the two versions of the “Fireplace” were permanently available for purchase at Eugène Blot’s gallery.

 

Before Eugène Blot acquired the model of the Dream by the Fireside from Camille Claudel in order to edition it in 1905, two marbles were made, the one mentioned above, commissioned by the Countess de Maigret (held today in the collections of the Palace of the Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, inv. 2018.88) and the one given by Alphonse de Rothschild in 1903 to the Draguignan museum (inv. 255).

The one that belonged to the Countess of Maigret was inherited by her beneficiaries until it was recently acquired by the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.[5] It is not dated but carries the signature “Camille Claudel.” The marble from the Draguignan museum is both signed and dated on the plinth of the base on the left: “C. Claudel 1903.” The two works can be distinguished by subtle differences in execution: the fine floor tiles drawn in the marble of the Draguignan work are not found in the San Francisco one; the lion-shaped andirons are only sketched in the work in San Francisco, while they are more developed in the Draguignan piece, and the mantels in the two works include different details, as do the chairs and the plinths.

 

Dream by the Fireside was one of a group of Camille Claudel’s works editioned by Eugène Blot. It seems that he began editioning this model in 1905 and stopped in 1937, when Blot sold his models of Camille Claudel’s works along with the rights to reproduce them to Leblanc-Barbedienne. A document written by Eugène Blot some thirty years after he began the edition states, “As [Dream by the Fireside] sold very well and the great artist was always in need of money, she made me another figure in front of a fireplace called The Yule Log [or Deep Thought].”[6] Eugène Blot may well have been mistaken, for, as indicated above, Deep Thought was shown before Dream by the Fireside and thus must have been done before the latter work. Camille Claudel proposed to do a third fireplace work in 1905,[7] but it seems that that project was never realized, as no trace of the work has ever been found.

The two “Fireplaces” were editioned with a small electric light inside the fireplace itself, though few of the proofs still have that feature today.  “I had a lot of success selling these works by placing a small red lightbulb behind the logs in the fireplaces.”[8]

The proofs of Dream by the fireside editioned by Eugène Blot known until now always have two materials: the fireplaces are in marble (white or colored[9]) and the rest of the artwork is in bronze.  The form of the fireplaces varies slightly.

Some of the proofs are numbered while others are not. In the catalogue for the exhibition at the Eugène Blot gallery in December of 1905, the work is listed without the number of proofs being stated. And when Eugène Blot presented the Camille Claudel models that he had edited to the Barbedienne company to cede their production to them, the edition was stated as unlimited[10].

Three proofs from Blot’s edition belong to public collections:

—One, unnumbered, in white marble and bronze, is in the Camille Claudel Museum in Nogent-sur-Seine (inv. #2010.1.20).

— A second one, numbered 19, in colored marble and bronze, entered the collections of the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. in 2017 (gift of Wilhelmina Cole Holladay, inv. #2017.44).

— A third one, numbered 16, in white marble and bronze, entered the collections of the National Museum in Stockholm in 2023 (inv. NMSk 2418).

Our proof has an exceptionally prestigious provenance; it belonged to the Hollywood actress Rosalind Russell (1907-1976), whose important collection (800 lots) was sold at auction in 1984. Our proof is distinguished from other proofs currently known of Rêve au coin du feu (Dream by the Fireside) by its gold patina, which was created by layers of gold leaf being laid over a varnish base. This process is known as dorure à la feuille d’or or “gilding with gold leaf.” There are other works editioned by Eugène Blot that are known for their fully gilded patinas, such as The Waltz, which was featured in the catalogue of the 1908 exhibition held at the Eugène Blot gallery[11], and there are works, such as a proof of Fortune and a proof of Perseus and the Gorgon, that have partially gilded patinas.

 

Several articles that discussed Dream by the Fireside at the beginning of the century are worth citing here. As soon as it appeared in the once-a-decade exhibition in 1900,[12] Dream by the Fireside received great praise from Gustave Geffroy in La Vie artistique; he referred to its “robust grace” and “magnificent, life-like expression.”[13] But Émile Dacier, in an article that came out in the Bulletin de l’art ancien et moderne[14] in 1905, was not persuaded by the artist’s statement that she was engaging naturalist scenes; he preferred stronger subjects.

On the other hand, the author of an article that appeared in 1906 in Psyché recognized Camille Claudel’s choice and audacity in this work: “The finesse of the beings that she sculpts seem to me to emanate directly from an extremely complex and intricate nervous system, with many tactile tentacles, more diverse even than that of Rodin. (His is the case of a giant caressing young girls; Mlle Claudel seems to be a more enveloping mother, less sexual …) And her physiological energy seems to be from nervous tension, brusque momentum, single-minded concentration, and perhaps even a kind of mysticism that Rodin does not have, closer to the earth. In short, all that one usually thinks of as a feminine and lyrical sensibility. The discreet poetry of a piece such as Dream by the Fireside is exquisitely delicate; its internal soul will remain a precise record of the sweetness of the modern, thoughtful woman.”[15]

Thus, the work’s reception at the time of its creation seems to have ocellated between two poles; on the one hand, it was recognized, without much enthusiasm, as a good work, but without the true greatness of other works by the artist, while on the other hand, it was seen as a deep understanding of the capacity for feeling, which makes the work a masterpiece of restrained and internalized beauty.

 

In his own way, Paul Claudel himself ocellated between these two poles.[16] Though he never spoke directly of Dream by the Fireside before 1940, from 1913 on, he suggested ways that it might be understood, explaining that his sister’s works invited meditation and poetry: “… from now on, excluded from public spaces and the open air, sculpture, like the other arts, retreats to its solitary chamber where poets shelter their forbidden dreams. Camille Claudel is the first artist of this interior sculpture.”[17] In 1940, Paul Claudel wrote a reflection on the soul based on his sister’s sculpture in a text titled “Assise et qui regarde le feu” (“Seated and Who Watches the Fire.”)[18] In 1951, he referred to the first fireplace, Deep Thought, in the text that he wrote for the catalogue for the Camille Claudel exhibition at the Rodin museum, but these lines could equally well refer to Dream by the Fireside: “Later, it was this woman on her knees that she [Camille Claudel] sold to the dealer Bloch (sic); one has to live! A red lamp in the fireplace and the woman silhouetted in black. The effect was amusing.”[19] Paul Claudel clearly thought of Dream by the Fireside as a work that his sister sold to her dealer in order to live, without dwelling on its aesthetic qualities and underscoring what the work had become: a trinket functioning as a nightlight. But the last time that he referred to the work directly, on January 22, 1946, at Brangues, it was to say that in it he saw a representation of his sister: “… a woman seated and looking into the fire. I associate the image, infinitely painful, with my sister herself.”[20] Quite likely, Camille Claudel imbued this sculpture with sentiments that she had personally experienced, and it probably has an autobiographical aspect, even though completely transposed.

 

Since the gradual rediscovery of the works of Camille Claudel during the 1980s, writers who’ve studied Dream by the Fireside have also tended to hold two opposite opinions. Some see the sculpture as a simple, perhaps banal, illustrative subject,[21] done from life, while others appreciate this stunning work, seeing it as rich with multiple interpretations. Laure de Margerie, for instance, explores them in her 2005 article,[22] referred to and at times expanded here. Laure de Margerie opines that Dream by the Fireside goes beyond illustration and represents the artist’s discriminating choices: “Even though the initial impulse may have come from an observation of daily life, Claudel strips her characters bare, relieving them of any connotation of the here and now … “[23] This is immediately apparent in The Wave and The Gossips, though less for Dream by the Fireside because the woman remains dressed. However, she is barefoot and in a dress that gives no indication of the era, the season, or the time of day. Added to that are strange details that seem to come out of a fairy tale, and, in fact, one of the work’s titles, Cinderella, refers to that. These details include two andirons in the shape of sitting lions left roughly sketched in; in addition, one of the front rungs of the chair is missing and has been replaced by what seems to be the broken branch of a tree.[24]

This distinctive atmosphere, out of time and with much left unsaid, lets the imagination wander, in the same way that the woman’s head resting on the lintel of the fireplace allows her to escape into her thoughts. “In the series of the Fireplaces, it is silence that reigns. It follows the babble of The Gossips and the noise of The Wave.”[25] The crackling of the fire can only barely be heard, even though it is the central element of the composition. “Contemplating the fire, with its hypnotic power, leads to a dreamy state in which the spirit leaves the body to wander an elsewhere that is almost the beyond.”[26]In Blot’s editions, the bronze fire is enlivened by a small red light, while in the two marbles, the fire is amplified by a sketch of smoke on the stone front of the mantle. Françoise Magny has commented: “The fireplace, the image of home, of comfort, or, on the contrary, of solitude, is also the symbol of the unconscious and of secret aspirations.”[27]

In 2001, another author, the psychoanalyst Danielle Arnoux, used Dream by the Fireside in a consideration of Camille Claudel’s mental health issues in her book titled Camille Claudel, the Ironic Sacrifice. She states that the artist’s complaints about the mass reproduction of the small fireplaces became part of her paranoia and suggests that this delusional focus is perhaps rooted in her decline or in the cessation of her creativity.[28] In her 2011 book, Camille Claudel, Re-enchantment of the Work, she returns to the Dream by the Fireside to consider, this time, its status as a work of art.[29] She explains that the artists of the time were trying to escape academicism by showing, among other things, that there was no boundary between fine art sculpture and decorative sculpture. “So much so that the intimate works sold by Eugène Blot as decorative objects, for example, the Small Fireplaces transformed into nightlights, which could be dismissed as minor pieces, have been re-evaluated and are seen as authentic creations.”[30] She thus sheds light on the power of Dream by the Fireside, which hides its depth under an apparent simplicity.

- 1898 CATALOGUE : Catalogue illustré de la société nationale des Beaux-Arts, 1898, p. 48.

- 1900 CATALOGUE : Paris. Exposition Internationale Universelle de 1900, catalogue officiel général, groupe II-Œuvres d’art-Classes 7 à 10.

- 1901 GEFFROY : Gustave GEFFROY, « Souvenirs de l’exposition de 1900 », in La Vie artistique, 7^e série, 1901, p. 291.

- 1905 DACIER : Émile DACIER, Article sans titre, in Bulletin de l’art ancien et moderne, 9 décembre 1905.

- 1906 L.T. : « Les expositions. Deux sculpteurs », in Psyché, p. 103-104, Paris, avril 1906.

- 1908 CATALOGUE EXPOSITION GALERIE PARIS : Exposition de Mesdames Camille Claudel, Gaston Devore, Jeanne Eliot, Alcide Lebeau-Hassenberg, Ann Osterlind (Mme Edouard Sarradin), catalogue d’exposition [Paris, Galerie Eugène Blot, 1^er – 24 décembre 1908], Paris, Galerie Eugène Blot, 1908.

- 1913 CLAUDEL : Paul Claudel, « Camille Claudel » (repris de L’Occident, 1905), in L’Art décoratif, juillet 1913.

-1951 CLAUDEL : Paul Claudel, « Ma sœur Camille », texte du catalogue de l’exposition Camille Claudel, Paris, musée Rodin, 1951.

- 1964 CLAUDEL : Paul Claudel, « La Rose et le Rosaire », in Œuvres complètes, t. XXI, Paris, Gallimard, 1964.

- 1983 RIVIÈRE : Anne RIVIÈRE, L’interdite, Camille Claudel (1864-1943), Paris, Tierce, 1983.

- 1984 GAUDICHON : Bruno GAUDICHON, « Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre sculpté, peint et gravé… », in catalogue de l’exposition Camille Claudel (1864-1943), Paris, musée Rodin et Poitiers, musée Sainte-Croix, 1984, n°95b, p. 121 (et pour la notice sur les deux Cheminées, voir n°32, p.80-81, exemplaire en marbre, Draguignan, musée d’art et d’histoire, n°inv.255).

- 1984 PARIS : Reine-Marie PARIS, Camille Claudel, Paris, Gallimard, 1984, p. 366 et 297 (exemplaire en marbre reproduit, Draguignan, musée d’art et d’histoire, n°inv.255).

- 1990 CATALOGUE : Tourcoing, musée des beaux-arts, Mon frère, Édition du musée des beaux-arts, 1990, p. 14.

- 1990 PARIS-LA CHAPELLE : Reine-Marie PARIS, Arnaud de LA CHAPELLE, L’Œuvre de Camille Claudel, Paris, Adam Biro-Arhis, 1990 (rééd. en 1991), nº56, p.189-190 (exemplaire en marbre reproduit, Draguignan, musée d’art et d’histoire, n°inv.255).

- 1991 CATALOGUE : Paris, musée Rodin, Camille Claudel, rédigé par Nicole Barbier, préface de Jacques Vilain, 1991.

- 1995 BOUTÉ : Gérard BOUTÉ, Camille Claudel. Le miroir et la nuit, Paris, Éditions de l’Amateur-Éditions des catalogues raisonnés, 1995, p. 199-201 (exemplaire en marbre et bronze reproduit, coll. part.).

- 1996 RIVIÈRE-GAUDICHON-GHANASSIA : Anne RIVIÈRE, Bruno GAUDICHON, Danielle GHANASSIA, Camille Claudel. Catalogue raisonné, Paris, Adam Biro, 1996, n°59.4, p. 148-149 (exemplaire en marbre reproduit, Draguignan, musée d’art et d’histoire, n°inv.255).

- 1998 CLAUDEL : Paul CLAUDEL, Le Poëte et la Bible, t.I, Gallimard, 1998.

- 2001 RIVIÈRE-GAUDICHON : Anne RIVIÈRE, Bruno GAUDICHON, « Catalogue raisonné », in Camille Claudel, Catalogue raisonné, troisième édition augmentée, Paris, Adam Biro, 2001, n°61.4, p. 178.

- 2005 CATALOGUE : Québec, musée national des beaux-arts – Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, Camille Claudel et Rodin. La Rencontre de deux destins, Hazan, 2005, n°88, p. 240 (exemplaire en marbre et bronze reproduit).

- 2008 CATALOGUE : Madrid, Fundación Mapfre, Paris, Musée Rodin, Camille Claudel 1864-1943, Gallimard, 2008, p. 313 (exemplaire en marbre et bronze reproduit, coll. part.).

- 2008 RIONNET : Florence RIONNET, La maison Barbedienne : Correspondances d’artistes, CTHS Édition, 2008.

- 2008 RIVIÈRE : Anne RIVIÈRE, « Les bustes de Paul Claudel par Camille Claudel », Bulletin de la Société Paul Claudel, n°191, septembre 1990, p. 31-40.

- 2011 ARNOUX 1 : Danielle ARNOUX, Camille Claudel, l’ironique sacrifice, Paris, EPEL, 2011, p. 250.

- 2011 ARNOUX 2 : Danielle ARNOUX, Camille Claudel. Réenchantement de l’œuvre, Paris, EPEL, 2011, p. 148-149.

- 2012 CATALOGUE. : Morestel, Maison Ravier, Camille et Paul Claudel 1885-1905 : deux artistes à l’œuvre, Édition AMRA, 2012, p. 31 (exemplaire en marbre et bronze reproduit, Nogent-sur-Seine, musée Camille Claudel, n°inv.2010.1.20).

- 2012 PARIS : Reine-Marie PARIS, Chère Camille Claudel, Histoire d’une collection, Paris, Culture Économica, 2012, n°16 des illustrations (exemplaire en marbre et bronze reproduit, Nogent-sur-Seine, musée Camille Claudel, n°inv.2010.1.20).

- 2013 AYRAL-CLAUSE : Odile AYRAL-CLAUSE, Camille Claudel, Sa vie, Paris, Hazan, 2013, p. 172.

- 2013 CLAUDEL : Camille CLAUDEL, Correspondance, Édition d’Anne Rivière et Bruno Gaudichon, 3^e édition revue et augmentée, Gallimard, 2013.

- 2013 CATALOGUE : Avignon, Palais des Papes et Collection Lambert en Avignon, Les Papesses, Camille Claudel, Louise Bourgeois, Kiki Smith, Jana Sterbak, Berlinde de Bruyckere, Arles, Actes Sud, p. 346 (exemplaire en marbre reproduit, Draguignan, musée d’art et d’histoire, n°inv.255).

- 2014 CATALOGUE : Roubaix, La Piscine – musée d’art et d’industrie André-Diligent, Camille Claudel Au miroir d’un Art nouveau, éditions Gallimard La Piscine -Roubaix, 2014, p. 137 (exemplaire en marbre reproduit, Draguignan, musée d’art et d’histoire, n°inv.255) et p. 219 (exemplaire en marbre et bronze reproduit, Nogent-sur-Seine, musée Camille Claudel, n°inv.2010.1.20).

- 2014 LE NORMAND-ROMAIN : Antoinette LE NORMAND-ROMAIN, Camille Claudel & Rodin. Le temps remettra tout en place, Paris, musée Rodin, Hermann Éditeurs, 2014, p. 104-105 (exemplaire en marbre reproduit, Draguignan, musée d’art et d’histoire, n°inv.255).

- 2014 PARIS-CRESSENT : Reine-Marie PARIS, Philippe CRESSENT, Camille Claudel, intégrale des œuvres, Paris, Culture Économica, 2014, n°280, p. 570-571 (exemplaire en marbre et bronze reproduit, Nogent-sur-Seine, musée Camille Claudel, n°inv.2010.1.20).

- 2014 RIVIÈRE-GAUDICHON : Anne Rivière, Bruno Gaudichon, Camille Claudel, Correspondance, Édition d’Anne Rivière et Bruno Gaudichon, 3^e édition revue et augmentée, coll. « Art et Artistes », Gallimard, 2014, p. 237 (exemplaire en plâtre reproduit).

- 2017 MAGNY : Françoise MAGNY, Guide des collections musée Camille Claude Nogent-sur-Seine, Lienart, 2017, p. 351 (exemplaire en marbre et bronze reproduit, Nogent-sur-Seine, musée Camille Claudel, n°inv.2010.1.20).

- 2018 CATALOGUE : Nogent-sur-Seine, musée Camille Claudel, Camille Claudel, Paul Claudel : Le rêve et la vie, Lienart, 2018, p. 74-75 (exemplaire en marbre reproduit, Draguignan, musée d’art et d’histoire, n°inv.255).

- 2019 PARIS-CRESSENT : Reine-Marie PARIS, Philippe CRESSENT, Camille Claudel Catalogue raisonné, 5^e édition revue, corrigée et augmentée, Paris, Culture Économica, 2019, n°112-3, p. 696 (exemplaire en marbre et bronze reproduit, Nogent-sur-Seine, musée Camille Claudel, n°inv.2010.1.20).

- 2020 NANTET : Marie-Victoire NANTET, Camille et Paul Claudel, Lignes de partage, Gallimard, 2020, p. 168-170 et p. 4 des illustrations (exemplaire en marbre et bronze reproduit, Nogent-sur-Seine, musée Camille Claudel, n°inv.2010.1.20).

[1] These documents are held in the Archives Nationales in Paris under 368 AP3.

[2] This was a bronze done before the Eugène Blot edition, that edition having begun in 1905.

[3] 1898 CATALOGUE, p. 48.

[4] “140.—Le Rêve au coin du feu (The Dream by the Fireside), marble statuette.” in 1900 CATALOGUE, group II, Works of art—Classes 7 to 10, #140.

[5] The work was restored when it entered the collection; not only were broken pieces of the back of the chair put back in place, but it was also no doubt thoroughly cleaned, which reveals the fact that it is not pink marble, but white. In François Pompon’s notebook, it is noted under the date May 23, 1899 that the prize given to Camille Claudel for materials and execution of a “figurine at a pink marble fireplace” was 700 francs. (Paris, archives of the musée d’Orsay, account books of François Pompon, July 1884 to August 1908, collection of François Pompon René Demeurisse ODO 1996-46-1 2/3, p.73 left). A note on p. 73 on the side at the right reads: “#3 Mussetti. Clarification of the fireplace 180.” And finally, underneath (p. 73 right) “received from Mlle Claudel fig. seated 350 December 1, 1899, in complete or partial fulfillment 350.” Are these notes in reference to the Countess’s marble? That is what has always been thought (2001 RIVIÈRE-GAUDICHON, p. 178), but the color of the marble leaves room for doubt.

[6] Citation taken from the article by Laure de Margerie in 2005 CATALOGUE, p. 246. Eugène Blot, Souvenirs d’Eugène Blot à propos de sa rencontre avec Camille Claudel (Memories of Eugène Blot in Relation to his Meetings with Camille Claudel), meant for Jules Leblanc-Barbedienne, December 17, 1936, 2 f., 27 x 21.2 cm, Paris, Archives nationales de France (368 AP3). This letter is reproduced in 2008 RIONNET, p. 62-68.

[7] Letter from Camille Claudel to Eugène Blot, see 2013 CLAUDEL, #237, p. 236-237.

[8] Letter from Eugène Blot to Jules Leblanc-Barbedienne, December 17, 1936, Paris, Archives nationales de France (368 AP3). When Blot evokes the first, he is certainly referencing Dream by the Fireside, as he considered it to be the first of the two “Fireplaces.” This letter is reproduced in 2008 RIONNET, p. 62-68.

[9] The colored marbles have very beautiful colors and veins. Unfortunately, at present, no study can say more about them. Martine Droit's article, "Camille Claudel and onyx marble" focused only on the stones used by the artist for Les Causeuses and La Vague (1991 CATALOGUE, p. 31-32).

[10] The collection of documents held in the 368 AP3 files of the national archives mention an unlimited edition for the Dream by the Fireside. This collection leaves the impression that the model was, in the end, not ceded to Leblanc-Barbedienne (see 2008 RIONNET, note 91 p. 64).

[11] See 1908 CATALOGUE EXPOSITION GALERIE PARIS, NP (p. 1)

[12] This exhibition was part of the 1900 Universal Exhibition.

[13] 1901 GEFFROY, p. 291.

[14] 1905 DACIER.

[15] 1906 L.T., p. 103-104.

[16] The texts by Laure de Margerie (2005 CATALOGUE, p. 237-249) and Marie-Victoire Nantet (2020 NANTET, p. 168-170) allowed me to reflect upon Paul Claudel’s attitude toward Dream by the Fireside.

[17] 1913 CLAUDEL, p. 16.

[18] 1998 CLAUDEL, p. 1310.

[19] 1951 CLAUDEL, p. 12.

[20] 1998 CLAUDEL, p. 126.

[21] In 1984, Bruno Gaudichon noted that the subject has more equivalents in painting than in sculpture (1884 GAUDICHON, p. 81). In 2017, in the Guide to the Collections of the Musée Camille Claudel Nogent-sur-Seine, Françoise Magny evokes the “Nabi paintings of Édouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, and Félix Vallotton” (p. 351).

[22] 2005, DE MARGERIE, p. 237-249.

[23] 2005, DE MARGERIE, p. 241.

[24] These details do not exist in the two versions in marble.

[25] 2005, DE MARGERIE, p. 246-247.

[26] 2005, DE MARGERIE, p. 247.

[27] 2017 MAGNY, p. 351.

[28] 2011 ARNOUX 1, p. 249-251.

[29] 2011 ARNOUX 1, p. 148-149.

[30] 2011 ARNOUX 1, p. 149.