In this plaster bust of her teenage brother, Paul, Camille Claudel portrayed the future writer and diplomat as a proud Roman patrician. The sitter’s solemn expression and the strictly frontal composition contrast with the thin drapery that swirls around his shoulders and ripples across his chest. Painted by the artist with transparent layers of yellow, red, green, and brown, the work imitates the oxidized surfaces of ancient Greek and Roman bronzes.

Claudel was among the most daring and visionary sculptors of the late 19th century. From around 1905 her mental health declined and, in 1913, she was forcibly interned for the remainder of her life in a psychiatric facility, having displayed symptoms of what was called paranoid psychosis. This event marked the premature end of her career.