Les causeuses sans paravent

Claudel was interested in creating sculptures that represented the rituals of everyday life; she called them "croquis d'après nature". The choice of women gossiping as the subject for a sculpture was a remarkably modern statement in 1893 when she first conceived it, and she portrayed it with a uniquely feminine sensibility. The subject may also have been tinged with ironic references to her own secret as Rodin's mistress at the time. In a letter to her brother Paul written in December 1893, Claudel first stated her intent, "trois personnages en ecoutent une autre derrière un paravent" (quoted in R.-M. Paris, op. cit., 1991, p. 170), and by 1894 she had developed the idea into a finished plaster. In this first plaster version, the composition revolves around four women who are seated on two benches within a womb-like enclosure. Though the figures are sedentary, they are by no means static. Their huddled bodies fold over one another and create a dance-like rhythm that is reminiscent of such signature Claudel sculptures as La valse and Le dieu envolé. The sculpture was lauded by Gustave Geffroy in his review of the 1895 Salon, "This is a marvel of comprehension, of human sentiment...the proof that the vigour of art is just this, the ability to create general effect" (quoted in op. cit., p. 170).

Claudel reworked this composition with minor variations and in differing media over the course of the two decades: in onyx and bronze (1897), marble and bronze (1905) and bronze (1905). The present marble version isolates the figures on the two benches without a screen backdrop. Because Claudel did not keep complete records, it is unclear whether this marble is unique or if it is one of two versions of this subject that she carved. Reine-Marie Paris records one that was made for the architect Pontrémoli and there may be a second, which was mentioned in a 1905 exhibition, however only one version is known today.