“After the break-up between Camille Claudel and Rodin, the latter tried to help her through an intermediary and obtained a government commission from the director of Fine Arts. Mature Age was commissioned in 1895, exhibited in 1899, but the bronze was never ordered and the plaster was never delivered by Camille Claudel. It was Captain Tissier who finally commissioned the first bronze in 1902.

The group evokes Rodin's hesitation between his former mistress, who was supposed to win, and Claudel who, to hold him back, leans forward. Beyond her personal story, the sculptor creates a symbolic work that leads to a meditation on human relationships. She herself is embodied in the features of a character she calls the Imploring One , thus marking the tragedy attached to her destiny.

Man at the end of his maturity is dizzyingly dragged down by age while he extends a useless hand towards youth. The nude figures are surrounded by flying draperies that accentuate the speed of the walk. The large obliques flee. Paul Claudel spoke of her thus: "My sister Camille, imploring, humiliated on her knees, this superb, this proud woman, and do you know what is being torn away from her, at this very moment, before your eyes, it is her soul.”