Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel (Pegasus Library)

The author, a Rodin specialist, examines the interplay of passion, self-destruction, and aesthetic development that characterized one of the most artistically fruitful, yet ultimately tragic, turn-of-the-century love affairs.

Each of the attractively designed, compact, and well-illustrated hardcover books in this series deals with a specific facet of an artist's career. As with any series, the quality of the titles vary?though the translations from the German are all dotted with odd grammatical constructions and the occasional ambiguity. Sagner-Duchting's discussion of Claude Monet's work at Giverny is a good introduction to the artist's important contribution to Impressionism as well as a careful analysis of his great series of grain stacks and water lilies. Partsch focuses on Klimt's relationships with women?both as an artist and as a man?offering a good, detailed account of Klimt and Emilie Floge (a fashion designer and perhaps his true love). The one disappointment is the work on Rodin and Claudel. Schmoll is defensive about the attention and praise given sculptor Camille Claudel in recent years (often, admittedly, at the expense of Rodin). His portrayal of Claudel in this brief book is at times quite negative and at odds with the picture that has emerged from the work of Reine-Marie Paris (Camille Claudel, National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1990). The "Pegasus Library" aims to provide a focused study of one aspect of an artist's oeuvre in an inexpensive format. Previous subjects include Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, and Vasily Kandinsky (all LJ 11/1/94). Although individual titles may be of interest to libraries, the narrow focus and variations in quality make the series as a whole an optional purchase.?Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, D.C.
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