Clara Schumann Wieck learned to compose, and from childhood to middle age she produced a good body of work. Clara wrote that "composing gives me great pleasure... there is nothing that surpasses the joy of creation, if only because through it one wins hours of self-forgetfulness, when one lives in a world of sound". At age fourteen she wrote her piano concerto, with some help from Robert Schumann, and performed it at age sixteen at the Leipzig Gewandhaus with Mendelssohn conducting. As she grew older, however, she became more preoccupied with other responsibilities in life and found it hard to compose regularly,
Clara Westhoff Clara Westhoff Clara Westhoff (21 September 1878 in Bremen – 9 March 1954 in Fischerhude), also known as "Clara Rilke" or "Clara Rilke-Westhoff" was a German sculptor and the wife of poet Rainer Maria Rilke. At the early age of 17, Clara Westhoff went to Munich, where she attended a private art school. In 1898, she moved to Worpswede and learned sculpture with Fritz Mackensen. She continued her studies in 1899 with Carl Seffner and Max Klinger in Leipzig, and in 1900 with Auguste Rodin in Paris, also attending the Académie Colarossi. In 1901, she married the poet Rainer Maria