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by Camille Claudel 
My very favorite sculpture by Camille Claudel is this white marble bust, known as The Little Chatelaine in English, and La Petite Chatelaine in French. Une chatelaine in French, is the lady of the manor, or the lady of the château (either the female owner, or the wife of the owner of a manor house or château.) Petite, as we know, means little.
When I first saw this sculpture in the Rodin Museum in Paris, I was mesmerized. Out of the same piece of marble, Camille is able to portray both the incredible delicacy of a little child's nostril, and the thick lushness of a braid woven from thick hair. You see them both in this sculpture, which really begs to be seen from every angle, as it displays this mix of lushness and delicacy whether the viewer focuses on the side of the little girl's face and hair, the back of her big, thick braid, or the full front of her delicate, little, flawless child's face. This sculpture alone is worth a trip to Paris.
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