Aristide Maillol

Lore & Background

Maillol was born in Banyuls-sur-Mer, Roussillon. He decided at an early age to become a painter and moved to Paris in 1881 to study art. After several applications and years of poverty, his enrollment in the École des Beaux-Arts was accepted in 1885, where he studied under Jean-Léon Gérôme and Alexandre Cabanel. His early paintings show the influence of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Paul Gauguin. Gauguin encouraged his growing interest in decorative art, leading Maillol to take up tapestry design. In 1893 he opened a tapestry workshop in Banyuls, producing works of high technical and aesthetic quality that gained him recognition for renewing this art form in France. He began making small terracotta sculptures in 1895, and within a few years his concentration on sculpture led to the abandonment of his work in tapestry.

In July 1896, Maillol married Clotilde Narcis, one of his employees at his tapestry workshop. Their only son, Lucian, was born that October. Maillol's first major sculpture, A Seated Woman, was modeled after his wife. The first version was completed in 1902 and renamed La Méditerranée. Maillol, believing that 'art does not lie in the copying of nature,' produced a second, less naturalistic version in 1905. In 1902, the art dealer Ambroise Vollard provided Maillol with his first exhibition. The subject of nearly all of Maillol's mature work is the female body, treated with a classical emphasis on stable forms. His important public commissions include a 1912 commission for a monument to Cézanne, as well as numerous war memorials commissioned after World War I. He died in Banyuls at the age of eighty-two in an automobile accident during a thunderstorm.

Reader's Guide

Maillol's figurative style of large bronzes is perceived as an important precursor to the greater simplifications of Henry Moore, and his serene classicism set a standard for European and American figure sculpture until the end of World War II. His restrained, monumental approach to the female figure rejected the exaggerated dynamism of late 19th-century sculpture, notably that of Auguste Rodin. Maillol's figures, with their serene and stable forms, marked a return to classical simplicity and purity. This approach resonated with artists like Henry Moore, who cited Maillol as an early influence on his own move toward abstraction and monumentality. Hans Arp found inspiration in Maillol's organic forms, which he believed offered a 'timeless universality.' Art historians such as Hilton Kramer and Albert Elsen have discussed Maillol's unique place in modern sculpture, with Kramer remarking that Maillol's works possess an 'elemental calm' and reflect an anti-Romantic sentiment. Elsen argued that his influence can be seen in the development of modernist sculpture, particularly through his focus on the essential harmony of form and space, a concept that paved the way for mid-century minimalism. During the German occupation of France, dozens of artworks by Maillol were seized by the Nazi looting organization known as the E.R.R. or Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce. Jewish art collectors whose artworks by Maillol were looted include Hugo Simon and Alfred Flechtheim.

Did You Know?

• Maillol began his career as a painter and did not focus on sculpture until his early 40s.
• He opened a tapestry workshop in 1893 in Banyuls, which helped renew the art form in France.
• His first major sculpture, A Seated Woman, was modeled after his wife and later renamed La Méditerranée.
• Three of his bronzes grace the grand staircase of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Aristide Maillol (8 Dec. 1861 – 27 Sept. 1944) was a French sculptor and painter. The subject of nearly all of Maillol's mature sculpture work is the female body, treated with a emphasis on stable forms." — Aristide Maillol "He [ Renoir; Maillol made his bust] was very interested, watching me do his bust. He said to me: 'Every time you touch it, it becomes more alive.'" — Aristide Maillol "Mademoiselle, I am told that you look like a Renoir and Maillol [as a model]. I would be happy with a Renoir." — Aristide Maillol "I seek beauty, not character. For me portraiture and statuary are completely opposed to each other." — Aristide Maillol