Camille Claudel & Bernhard Hoetger. Emancipation from Rodin

Descrizione

For the first time since 1905, the Alte Nationalgalerie is holding a collaborative exhibition showcasing the sculptural works of two artists whose creative careers and life paths crossed several times in Paris: Camille Claudel and Bernhard Hoetger. Both artists are united by their quest for recognition and by their decision to break with the master of French sculpture, Auguste Rodin. At the beating heart of the Parisian avant-garde, both the French sculptor and her German counterpart, who was ten years her junior, developed an artistic vitality that would resonate around the world and is now being presented to the public again in a joint format after 120 years.

The Alte Nationalgalerie is devoting itself to an artistic pairing of early-20th-century European art history that has otherwise been largely overlooked and under-researched: that of Camille Claudel (1864–1943) and Bernhard Hoetger (1874–1949). In 1905, Parisian gallery owner Eugène Blot organised a duo exhibition for the French sculptor Camille Claudel and the young German artist Bernhard Hoetger, who was staying in Paris at the time. Twelve of Claudel’s bronzes were exhibited, including now internationally recognised iconic works such as The Waltz (1889–1905), The Implorer (1894–1905) and The Wave (1897), „La Vague“ (1897) or „L´Âge mûr“ (1899), as well as 46 bronze statues by Hoetger, alongside a selection of the artist’s plaster casts and drawings. The exhibition and opportunity to meet the highly accomplished Impressionist art dealer Blot meant a great deal to both artists – especially in terms of boosting the general perception of Claudel as an independent artist and helping to disseminate her oeuvre, with the sculptor being praised as one of the most important artists of her day. The exhibition in Paris also gave Hoetger cause to celebrate the breakthrough in his artistic career. A series of differently themed rooms in the Alte Nationalgalerie contextualise the artworks that were presented by the two artists in 1905 within the Parisian art scene and the Impressionist movement.

In 2024, the Alte Nationalgalerie successfully acquired a bronze by Camille Claudel with the support of the Ernst von Siemens-Kunststiftung. Claudel’s The Implorer (1894–1905) not only establishes a direct link to the works of her teacher, mentor and lover Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) that are held in the Nationalgalerie’s collection, the acquisition also bridges a critical gap in the sphere of Impressionist sculpture and constitutes an important addition to the museum’s collection of works by women artists.

The exhibition Camille Claudel and Bernhard Hoetger: Emancipation from Rodin in the Alte Nationalgalerie showcases roughly 140 objects, 67 of which are artworks by Claudel and Hoetger, with numerous items on display that are on loan from a range of international institutions, in addition to works from the Alte Nationalgalerie, the Kupferstichkabinett and the Kunstgewerbemuseum. Adopting the same exhibition title, the exhibition at the Alte Nationalgalerie supplements the selection of works that were previously on display at the Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum in Bremen from 25 January to 18 May 2025 with works from its own collection and items on loan. The Bremen selection of works will be exhibited at the Musée Camille Claudel in Nogent-sur-Seine, France from 12 September 2025 to 10 January 2026.