La Petite Châtelaine
by CLAUDEL, Camille, Marble, height 34 cm
At the height of their affaire, Claudel and Rodin shared the Château de l’Islette, a romantic spot in the Tours region. Here Claudel executed a bust of La Petite Châtelaine, Marguerite Boyer, the owners’s six-year-old granddaughter. The child was obliged to sit for nearly sixty-two hours of posing, in exchange for which Claudel bought her a doll.
The motionless, studied pose of the figure fully conveys little Marguerite’s concentration. Hypnotized, she watches the sculptor’s every gestures. Several plasters were cast; in 1895 and 1896, Claudel sculpted four marbles, one of them was owned by Claude Debussy.