Yes, well.  The German Expressionists. 

And I don’t mean Pabst and Murnau, either, but Kandinsky, Grosz, Modigliani, of course he was Italian, and there’s pre-expressionist van Gogh (but only if his name is spelled and pronounced correctly, neither of which I know how to do).

I find that this era of artists found a balance between the representations of life, their feelings about it, and translating both onto canvas – with interpretation.

I am not drawn to art that tries to reproduce exactly what the human eye sees – photography does that better (although photography that only does that fails) – and likewise, the extreme abstraction – the entirely white canvas with no paint whatsoever – holds little appeal. 

Intellectual art, of say Marcel Duchamp, has its place however.

Then there is sculptor Camille Claudel and her lover Rodin.

She had flaming auburn hair, and they first met in 1881 when she was 17 and he 41. The degree to which their artistic passions and intensity unfolded and the degree to which she inspired him and vise versa, is perhaps unparalleled in art.

One need only look at the quality of work they both produced when they were together, best summed up for me by Rodin's sculptures of her. They are as intense and powerful as any photograph, movie, opera or play ever could be and transcend time... I ask how completely universal is this...

For me, Camille's own work has more honesty and angst, as can be seen in her portrait of Rodin, below. Where as Rodin often focuses on the pure beauty of the human form, she goes the other way.

Perhaps her spirit was more tormented. More frustrated. Perhaps she subconsciously knew she would spend the last 30+ years of her life, locked away in Montdevergues Asylum, outside of Paris - with strict instructions for her to be allowed NO visitors and receive NO letters. Yet, the letters she wrote from inside Montdevergues to the outside world show a lucid and sane Camille.

Was she locked up because she was an embarrassment to her family and her brother Paul? Locked up because she became a better artist and therefore a threat to Rodin? Or simply because she had gone insane? The answers will always remain unknown.

Repeated suggestions by her doctors to release her, were to no avail.

And if you are wondering, yes this love story would make a great movie, perhaps even starring Isabelle Adjani and Gérard Depardieu.

Camille felt she was a better sculptor that Rodin and desperately tried to get out from under his shadow and come into her own. In the end she accomplished neither - completely. Perhaps more famous today, she is none the less still completely and entirely associated with him. And he her.

The artist and his muse. Or is it the artist and her muse? Take your pick.

What more can be said about art?