Paul Claudel (French: [pɔl klodɛl]; August 6, 1868 – February 23, 1955) was a French poet, playwright, and diplomat. He was the younger brother of Camille Claudel, a sculptor. He is best known for his poetic plays, which often express his strong Catholic faith, and for ensuring his sister received proper care.
Early life
He was born in Villeneuve-sur-Fère, Aisne, into a family of farmers and government officials. His father, Louis-Prosper, worked with mortgages and bank transactions. His mother, Louise Cerveaux, came from a family in Champagne that included Catholic farmers and priests. He lived in Champagne during his early years and studied at the lycée in Bar-le-Duc. In 1881, his mother moved the family to Paris to continue their education. His father remained in the north to support the family financially. In Paris, Paul studied at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand.
As a teenager, Claudel did not believe in religion. However, at age 18, on Christmas Day 1886, he had a change in his beliefs after hearing a choir sing during a religious service at the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. He said, "In an instant, my heart was touched, and I believed." He remained a devoted Catholic for the rest of his life. During this time, he also read Arthur Rimbaud’s poetry collection Illuminations. Claudel aimed to use poetry, both lyrical and dramatic, to express the grand design of creation.
He continued his studies at the Paris Institute of Political Studies.
Diplomat
At age 25, Claudel joined the French diplomatic service and worked there from 1893 to 1936. He first served as a vice-consul in New York in April 1893 and later in Boston in December 1893. Claudel worked as the French consul in China from 1895 to 1909. During this time, he was stationed in Shanghai in June 1895. In 1900, Claudel took a break from his work and spent time at Ligugé Abbey, but his plan to join the Benedictine Order was delayed.
Claudel returned to China in 1900 as a vice-consul in Fuzhou. He took another break in France from 1905 to 1906, when he married. Claudel was part of a group of writers supported by Philippe Berthelot of the French Foreign Ministry. Other writers in this group included Jean Giraudoux, Paul Morand, and Saint-John Perse.
Because of his job in the diplomatic service, Claudel published his early writings anonymously or under a pseudonym. This was required by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As a result, Claudel remained little known as a writer until 1909. That year, the founding members of the Nouvelle Revue Française (NRF), including his friend André Gide, wanted to recognize Claudel’s work. Claudel sent them his poem Hymne du Sacre-Sacrement, which was praised by Gide and published under Claudel’s name.
Claudel had not asked for permission to publish the poem, which caused controversy. Critics criticized Claudel’s religious views, which affected the production of one of his plays in February 1909. Berthelot advised Claudel to ignore the critics. This event began Claudel’s long relationship with the NRF.
Claudel wrote many works about China based on his experiences as a diplomat. A final version of his book Connaissance de l'Est was published in 1914 by Georges Crès and Victor Segalen. Claudel’s last posting in China was as consul in Tianjin from 1906 to 1909.
Before World War I began, Claudel worked in several European cities, including Prague in December 1909, Frankfurt am Main in October 1911, and Hamburg in October 1913. During this time, Claudel was interested in the Hellerau theatre festival, which produced one of his plays, and the ideas of Jacques Copeau.
During and after World War I, Claudel held many diplomatic positions, including serving as a minister in Rome from 1915 to 1916, as a ministre plénipotentiaire in Rio de Janeiro from 1917 to 1918, as an ambassador in Tokyo from 1921 to 1927, and as a diplomat in Washington, D.C. from 1928 to 1933. In Washington, he was the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in 1933. Claudel also worked in Copenhagen from 1920 and Brussels from 1933 to 1936.
While working in Brazil during World War I, Claudel oversaw the continued shipment of food supplies from South America to France. Darius Milhaud, who later wrote music for Claudel’s plays, was one of Claudel’s secretaries during this time.
Later life
In 1935, Claudel moved to Brangues in Dauphiné, where he had purchased a château in 1927. He continued to spend his winters in Paris.
During World War II, Claudel traveled to Algeria in 1940 after the Battle of France, when German forces occupied Paris. He tried to help Free France but did not receive a response. He returned to Brangues and supported the Vichy regime, though he disagreed with Cardinal Alfred Baudrillart’s decision to work with Nazi Germany.
Nearby, Paul-Louis Weiller, who was married to Claudel’s daughter-in-law’s sister, was arrested by the Vichy government in October 1940. Claudel went to Vichy to try to help Weiller, but his efforts failed. Weiller escaped (with Claudel’s help, the authorities believed) and fled to New York.
In December 1941, Claudel wrote to Isaïe Schwartz, the Great Rabbi of France, to express his opposition to the Statut des Juifs, a law that treated Jewish people unfairly. The Vichy government responded by searching Claudel’s home and watching him closely.
Claudel was elected to the Académie française on April 4, 1946, replacing Louis Gillet. This followed his rejection in 1935, which caused some controversy because Claude Farrère was chosen instead. Claudel’s writing was highly respected, as he was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature six times.
Literary works
Paul Claudel often said that Stéphane Mallarmé was his teacher. Claudel’s poetry is similar to Mallarmé’s, but he added the idea that the world can be seen as a religious text that reveals truths. Claudel did not use traditional rules for poetry, instead creating a unique form of free verse called the verset claudelien. His work was influenced by American poet Walt Whitman and other French writers, such as Charles Péguy and André Spire, who also experimented with similar forms of free verse. Some scholars, like Jean Grosjean, have debated whether Claudel’s work was influenced by the Latin Vulgate, a version of the Bible.
His most famous plays include Le Partage de Midi ("The Break of Noon," 1906) and L'Annonce faite à Marie ("The Tidings Brought to Mary," 1910). The second play tells the story of a young medieval French peasant woman who becomes sick with leprosy, exploring themes of sacrifice, offering, and becoming holy. Le Soulier de Satin ("The Satin Slipper," 1931) examines human and divine love, set in the Spanish Empire during the Golden Age. This play was performed at the Comédie-Française in 1943.
Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher ("Joan of Arc at the Stake," 1939) is an oratorio, a type of musical drama, with music by Arthur Honegger. Claudel’s plays often take place in distant, romantic settings like medieval France or sixteenth-century Spanish South America. His works include intense scenes of deep, passionate love. The complexity, structure, and size of his plays made it difficult for general audiences to understand and appreciate his work at first. His final dramatic work, L'Histoire de Tobie et de Sara, was first performed by Jean Vilar at the Festival d'Avignon in 1947.
In addition to his plays, Claudel wrote lyric poetry. A major example is Cinq Grandes Odes ("Five Great Odes," 1907). Boštjan Marko Turk studied how medieval philosophy influenced Claudel’s poetry, especially Cinq Grandes Odes. He shared his findings in a book called Paul Claudel et l'Actualité de l'être (2011). This work was praised by Dominique Millet-Gérard, Turk’s doctoral advisor, for helping people better understand Claudel’s contributions to French literature.
Views and reputation
Claudel was a traditional conservative who shared the antisemitism of conservative Catholic France. However, he also opposed discriminatory laws passed by Germany and Vichy France.
After France fell in 1940, Claudel wrote a poem called Paroles au Maréchal ("Words to the Marshal"), praising Marshal Pétain for helping to heal France's broken and wounded nation. As a conservative Catholic, Claudel did not regret the fall of the anti-clerical French Third Republic.
His diaries showed his strong dislike for Nazism, calling it "demonic" and "wedded to Satan" as early as 1930. He compared communism and Nazism to "Gog and Magog." He wrote a letter to the World Jewish Conference in 1935, calling the Nuremberg Laws "abominable and stupid." He supported Charles de Gaulle and the Free French forces. This support was shown when he wrote a victory poem to de Gaulle after Paris was freed in 1944.
The British poet W. H. Auden mentioned Claudel in his poem In Memory of W. B. Yeats (1939). Auden wrote: "Time that with this strange excuse / Pardoned Kipling and his views, / And will pardon Paul Claudel, / Pardons him for writing well."
George Steiner, in his book The Death of Tragedy, said Claudel was one of the three "masters of drama" in the 20th century, along with Henry de Montherlant and Bertolt Brecht.
Family
While in China, Claudel had a long relationship with Rosalie Vetch née Ścibor-Rylska (1871–1951), the wife of Francis Vetch (1862–1944) and the granddaughter of Hamilton Vetch. Claudel met Francis Vetch through his job in diplomacy, and he met Rosalie during a sea voyage from Marseille to Hong Kong in 1900. Rosalie had four children, and she was pregnant with Claudel’s child when the relationship ended in February 1905. In 1905, Francis Vetch and Claudel found Rosalie at a railway station on the German border, where she showed that her relationship with Claudel was over. She later married Jan Willem Lintner in 1907. Louise Marie Agnes Vetch (1905–1996), born in Brussels, was Claudel’s daughter with Rosalie.
Claudel married Reine Sainte-Marie Perrin (1880–1973) on 15 March 1906. Reine was the daughter of Louis Sainte-Marie Perrin (1835–1917), an architect from Lyon who completed the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière. Claudel and Reine had two sons and three daughters.
In March 1913, Claudel placed his sister Camille in a psychiatric hospital, where she stayed for the last 30 years of her life. He visited her seven times during that time. Records show that Camille had periods of confusion but was able to work on her art clearly. Doctors told the family that Camille did not need to stay in the hospital, but the family kept her there.
This story is the subject of a 2004 novel by Michèle Desbordes titled La Robe bleue (The Blue Dress). Jean-Charles de Castelbajac wrote a song called La soeur de Paul for Mareva Galanter in 2010.