He eventually refused to marry her, reluctant to end his long-term relationship with Rose Beuret, mother of his son and later his wife.

The commission was cancelled in unusual circumstances in June 1899 by the Fine Arts Director, Henry Roujon.

The young woman that represents Youth has been exhibited as Le Dieu Envolé (The God Has Flown Away), which references the story of Psyche and Cupid, whose love is forbidden by Venus.

A design from the end of 1893 is held by the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and she referred to a "group of three" in a letter to her brother Paul in December 1893.

A version of the sculpture was found by chance in a flat in Paris that had been uninhabited for 15 years and was auctioned off in France on February 16, 2025 for €3.1 million.

[6] An edition of six smaller bronze version of the complete sculpture were made for Eugène Blot [fr], and separate bronzes of the old man and the young woman, including 20 casts of the young woman ("l'Implorante") in its original size and 100 smaller versions.

Paul Claudel, the artist's brother, commented on the work: "Ma soeur Camille, implorante, humiliée à genoux, cette superbe, cette orgueilleuse, et savez-vous ce qui s'arrache à elle, en ce moment même, sous vos yeux, c'est son âme".

("My sister Camille, imploring, humiliated on her knees, this great proud woman, and you know what is tearing at her, right now, before your eyes, it's her soul")