Camille Claudel (French, 1864-1943) Rêve au coin du feu, conceived between 1899 and 1905; executed by 1937 Bronze and onyx, wired for electricity 8-3/4 x 11-1/2 x 9-1/2 inches (22.2 x 29.2 x 24.1 cm) Ed. 24/65 Signed and stamped with the foundry mark, and numbered on the top of the base: C. Claudel / Eug. Blot / Paris / 24 PROVENANCE: Schmeller collection, Cleveland, (possibly acquired directly from the artist, early twentieth century); Private collection, Cleveland, acquired from the above; Thence by descent to the present owner. LITERATURE: A. Rivière, L'interdite, Camille Claudel, Paris, 1983, p. 78, no. 45, another example illustrated; B. Gaudichon, "Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre sculpté, pent et grave," Camille Claudel (1964-1943), exh.cat., Musée Rodin, Paris, 1984, p. 121, no. 95b, marble version illustrated p. 81; R.-M. Paris, Camille Claudel, 1864-1943, Paris, 1984, p. 366 marble version illustrated p. 297; Camille Claudel, exh. cat., Musée Rodin, Paris, 1991, no. 85, marble version illustrated p. 122; R.-M. Paris and A. de la Chapelle, L'Œuvre de Camille Claudel, Catalogue raisonné, nouvelle édition revue et compétée, Paris, 1991, p. 189-190, no. 56, marble version illustrated p. 189; G. Bouté, Camille Claudel, Le miroir et la nuit, Paris, 1995, illustrations of other examples p. 199-201; "Les cris et les silences d'un sculpteur de génie," Oxygène (La Lettre d'Aulnay), January 1996, another example illustrated n.p.; A. Rivière, B. Gaudichon, and D. Ghanassia, Camille Claudel, Catalogue raisonné, Paris, 1996, p. 148-149, no. 59.4, marble version illustrated p. 149; R.-M. Paris, Camille Claudel re-trouvée, Catalogue raisonné, Paris, 2000, p. 411, another example illustrated p. 413, 700; A. Rivière, B. Gaudichon, and D. Ghanassia, Camille Claudel, Catalogue raisonné, nouvelle édition révisée et augmentée, Paris, 2000-2001, p. 178, no. 61.4, marble version illustrated, p. 177 and 179; R.-M. Paris, Chère Camille Claudel : histoire d'une collection: récit, Paris, 2003, illustrated no. 16, n.p.; R-M Paris and P. Cressent, Camille Claudel, Inégrale des oeuvres, Paris, 2014, p. 571, no. 280, other versions illustrated p. 562, 564, 566, 570; R.-M. Paris and P. Cressent, Camille Claudel, Catalogue raisonné, 5e édition revue, corrigée et augmentée, Paris, 2019, p. 696-698, nos. 112-3, another example illustrated, p. 697, dated 1898; M.-V. Nantet, Camille et P. Claudel, Lignes de partage, Paris, 2020, p. 4, 168-170, another example illustrated; A.Rivière and B. Gaudichon, Camille Claudel, l'expression farouche de l'intime, Vanves, 2025, p. 153; p. 252, no. 73E, another example illustrated. Reine-Marie Paris has kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work. Camille Claudel's Rêve au coin du feu belongs to a group of small-scale sculptures from the 1890s into the early 1900s that she described as croquis d'après nature ("sketches from nature"). Produced at a moment when she was working to assert a more independent artistic identity—amid persistent comparisons to Auguste Rodin—these works mark a deliberate turn toward a more personal and modern mode of expression. While informed by direct observation, the compositions were carefully reworked in the studio, distilling everyday scenes into intimate, highly controlled forms. Closely related to Profonde Pensée (1898), another of Claudel's "fireplace" sculptures, Rêve au coin du feu was conceived around 1899 and depicts a seated woman before a fire, absorbed in a moment of quiet introspection. The composition is pared down to its essentials and infused with a subtle, atmospheric quality, emphasizing mood and inward reflection rather than narrative detail. The setting is minimal—a simple chair and a loosely rendered arrangement of firewood—handled with an expressive, almost sketch-like touch that aligns Claudel's sculptural approach with turn-of-the-century painterly practice and and reinforces the series' intimate, contemplative mood. A marble version was commissioned by Claudel's patron, the Countess de Maigret, around 1899, and is now in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. A plaster version was exhibited at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 and appears to have served as the basis for Eugène Blot's casts. Generally cited as an edition of 65 produced between 1905 and 1937, it includes versions cast entirely in bronze and others combining a bronze figure with a marble fireplace surround—or, as in the present example, onyx. The present work is number 24. The edition included examples in bronze and versions combining a bronze figure with a marble—or, as in the present example, onyx—fireplace surround. Some, including this work, were fitted with an electric light to illuminate the hearth and create a glowing "flame," blurring the boundary between sculpture and decorative object. Among Claudel and Blot's most creative and commercially successful works, examples of Rêve au coin du feu are now held in the collections of the Musée Camille Claudel, Nogent-sur-Seine; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; and the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. HID12401132022 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

Schmeller family collection, Cleveland, Ohio (possibly acquired directly from the artist, early twentieth century); Private collection, Cleveland, Ohio, acquired from the above; Thence by descent to the present owner.

Area of repair in front left of fireplace marble, with small losses long right side and back right corner. Oxidization in recesses. Heritage does not guarantee working order of electrical components.