The Convalescent

1904–1914

Ten years of devotion to Rodin: thousands of letters

Her devotion to Rodin, the most famous artist of his time and 35 years older than her, continued unabated for the next ten years, as documented in her thousands of fervent letters to him. Given to fierce attachments to both men and women that were sometimes disturbing to them, she was eventually kept at a distance by Rodin, despite his genuine feeling for her, through the use of concierges and secretaries.

c. 1913

Received into the Catholic Church

As her affair with Rodin drew to a close she sought comfort in Roman Catholicism and around 1913 was received into the Church; her notebooks of the period include meditations and prayers, and her desire to be “God’s little artist” and to “become a saint”.

17 febbraio 1913 – 19 maggio 1913

Exhibition: Armory Show

1919

Exhibition: Salon d'Automne

1926

Her only solo exhibition in her lifetime

Her only solo exhibition in her lifetime was held in 1926 at the New Chenil Galleries in London.

December 1926

Rilke’s death and a meeting with Jacques Maritain

In December 1926, distraught after the death of her old friend Rilke, she met her neighbour, the neo-Thomist philosopher Jacques Maritain, and sought religious guidance from him.