Camille Claudel and Bernhard Hoetger Emancipation from Rodin

Bernhard Hoetger, Les Adieux (The Farewell), detail, 1904. Photo credits: Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Bremen, Bernhard Hoetger Collection, on loan from a private collection / Photo: Jürgen Nogai, Bremen

In 1905, Parisian gallery owner Eugène Blot organised a duo exhibition for the French sculptor Camille Claudel and the young German artist Bernhard Hoetger, ten years her junior, 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 at the Alte Nationalgalerie revisits the pairing for the first time since 1905, showcasing the sculptural works of these two artists, united by their quest for recognition and decision to break with the master of French sculpture, Auguste Rodin.

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 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.