Aristide Maillol

French artist and sculptor, Aristide Maillol, is best known for his statues of female nudes. Before turning to sculpture, he had a successful early career as a painter and tapestry designer and was associated with the decorative Nabis group.

Aristide Maillol transitioned to sculpture in his late thirties, largely due to failing eyesight, and it was in this medium that he left his most significant mark on modern art.

Biography of Aristide Maillol

Aristide Maillol was born to Raphaël Maillol and Catherine Rougé. With his father, a draper who was frequently away on business, and his mother showing little interest in his daily care, the artist was primarily raised by his aunt Lucy and his paternal grandfather, a fisherman.

From an early age, Aristide Maillol was captivated by the landscape and surroundings of his Mediterranean hometown, Banyuls-sur-Mer. He frequently returned there throughout his life to live and work. Reflecting on his deep affection for the place, the artist once remarked, "My village, which I love more than anything I have ever seen, has every resource to offer a painter - it's as if a golden dust had been scattered over the entire area."

Aristide Maillol's childhood was marked by sorrow and loss, beginning with the death of his older brother Adolphe when the artist was just ten years old. These early losses had a profound impact on his temperament. According to Dina Vierny, Maillol's muse and model who later became the executor of his estate, he was "temperamentally different from the other children of his own age," leading him to grow up as a solitary child.

In 1874, the artist was sent to a boarding school in a nearby town, where his loneliness was so acute that his aunt visited him weekly to bolster his spirits. During this period Aristide Maillol had the opportunity to take art lessons and created his first notable painting at the age of thirteen — a landscape of Banyuls.

The artist's teenage years were fraught with further personal setbacks, including the death of his father in 1877. This loss significantly diminished the family’s already modest income, forcing them to rely on produce from their vineyards, which were later devastated by a phylloxera epidemic in 1880. Despite these challenges, Aristide Maillol left boarding school in 1879 to return home with the determination to pursue a career as an artist. In 1881, he enrolled in art classes at the Musée Hyacinthe Rigaud.

Fully committed to becoming an artist, Aristide Maillol, with only hesitant support from his aunt Lucy, decided to study in Paris. He arrived in the French capital in 1881 with her modest pledge of twenty francs a month. Upon his arrival, Maillol took the entrance exam for the École des Beaux-Arts but failed several times. He then chose to audit a class taught by Jean-Léon Gérôme.

In 1883, Aristide Maillol enrolled in the École des Arts Décoratifs, but his financial situation was so dire that it adversely affected his health, leading to repeated hospitalizations. Reflecting on this difficult period, the artist later wrote, "How did I manage? I was very ill and nearly died. Ill-nourished, rheumatic, and neglected, my resistance to disease was low and I spent long periods in hospital. When I came out, I simply relapsed into poverty. Sometimes I thought I would jump into the Seine and finish it."

Despite these hardships, the artistl's perseverance eventually paid off when he was accepted into the École des Beaux-Arts in 1885. However, it wasn't long before he became dissatisfied with his training there. Despite his dissatisfaction with formal education, Aristide Maillol made valuable connections during this early period, including sharing a dwelling with the young artist Antoine Bourdelle. According to Dina Vierny, Maillol lived in "indescribable poverty," surviving on "cheese and milk" with scarcely enough for even a beer.

The artist's financial situation improved slightly after meeting Maurice Boucher, who hired him to create stage sets for his theater. More significantly, Aristide Maillol was introduced to his first exhibition of Impressionist and Synthetic paintings, which featured his idol Paul Gauguin.

Aristide Maillol's career effectively began in Paris, where he established the foundations for his future work. In the late 1880s, he started exhibiting in salons, which led to his first commissions. During this period, he met the artist József Rippl-Rónai, who facilitated his involvement with the Les Nabis group of painters. Alongside Rippl-Rónai, Maillol developed lifelong friendships with key figures in the group, including Paul Gauguin, Maurice Denis, and Édouard Vuillard.

In 1892, the artist's interest shifted to tapestry, leading him to take lessons at the Cluny Museum in Paris. By 1893, he had exhibited his first tapestry work and established a tapestry studio in his hometown of Banyuls-sur-Mer, where he employed two assistants, Angélique and Clotilde Narcisse. After falling in love with Clotilde, they returned to Paris, married in July 1896, and had their only child, a son named Lucien, in October of that year.

Upon returning to Paris, Aristide Maillol began creating his first sculptures, initially working with wood. However, it was his tapestries that garnered the most attention at this time. This recognition was partly due to Paul Gauguin, who praised Maillol's work in a published review, stating, "Maillol is showing a tapestry which is beyond praise." Another admirer, Romanian princess Elizabeth Bibesco, commissioned a tapestry in 1897. With this success, the artist was able to set up his own house and studio in the Villeneuve-Saint-Georges area of Paris, which became a hub for the Nabi group and other prominent figures, including Henri Matisse, who became a lifelong friend, and Pablo Picasso.

Unfortunately, the close-up work required for tapestry began to severely strain Maillol's eyes, leading him to fear permanent vision loss. Regretfully, he decided to shift his focus almost entirely to sculpture. He quickly transitioned from wood to bronze, creating thirty small statuettes in 1900 and beginning work on the large-scale sculptures for which he would later become renowned.

Aristide Maillol's first solo exhibition in 1902, organized by friend and art dealer Ambroise Vollard, was well received. With newfound success, the artist moved to Marly-le-Roi, where he established a studio and built a house. He spent the remainder of his life dividing between this home in the summer and his hometown of Banyuls in the winter.

Aristide Maillol's connections were instrumental in securing several memorial commissions for him. In turn, Maillol also influenced those around him. Notably, Pierre-Auguste Renoir was inspired to try sculpture himself in 1907 after observing Maillol's work on his bust. Auguste Rodin played a key role in introducing the artist to the German Count Harry Kessler in 1905. Kessler became a devoted patron, commissioning major works such as La Méditerranée (1905). In 1908, Kessler and Maillol traveled to Greece, where the ancient monuments and sculptures, including those at the Parthenon and Propylaea, had a profound impact on Maillol's artistic direction.

Kessler founded a printing press and frequently asked Maillol to create drawings for his publications. Frustrated with the quality of the paper available, the artist designed and produced his own. With Kessler’s support, Maillol established a paper production shop in 1913, which was managed by his nephew. The paper, named "Montval," is still in use today.

Harry Kessler, while a crucial patron for the artist, inadvertently caused some damage to his reputation. In 1914, just before the outbreak of the First World War, Kessler sent Maillol a cable instructing him to bury his statues to prevent damage. This message led French officials to investigate Aristide Maillol for treason, although the charges were eventually dropped. The situation was exacerbated by two articles that questioned Maillol's loyalties and his close ties to his German patron. The conscription of the artist's son into battle further deepened his distress, and he ceased creating new work for the duration of the war.

After the war and with his son's safe return, Aristide Maillol began to emerge from his depression and resumed creating art with renewed vigor. He received numerous commissions, including monuments to honor France's fallen soldiers in Banyuls-sur-Mer and Port-Vendres and a statue dedicated to the French master Paul Cézanne.

As his success and international recognition grew, including a solo exhibition in Buffalo in 1925, Aristide Maillol resumed traveling. In 1929, he visited London and Germany, where he met Albert Einstein. The following year, he returned to Germany with Kessler, meeting many gallery and museum professionals. In 1936, the artist traveled to Italy, where he was deeply moved by the works of Raphael and Michelangelo.

In 1937, Aristide Maillol's art was profoundly influenced by his encounter with a young woman named Dina Vierny, whom he learned resembled his ideal figural type. Eager to meet her, he wrote to Vierny: "Mademoiselle, I am told that you look like a Maillol or a Renoir. I'd settle for a Renoir." Intrigued by the artist's interest, Vierny agreed to visit him, and the two established a working relationship, with Vierny serving as Maillol's sole model for the rest of his life. She even moved into a house nearby, much to the dismay of Maillol’s wife.

In his later years, the artist faced a series of personal and professional challenges. He experienced the loss of many friends, including Count Harry Kessler in 1937. The outbreak of the Second World War deeply affected him, effectively trapping him in Banyuls. Despite the difficult circumstances, he continued to work diligently, often putting in an average of ten hours each day, according to Dina Vierny.

Tragically, Aristide Maillol's life was cut short when he was involved in an automobile accident on September 15, 1944, while traveling to visit artist Raoul Dufy. He died twelve days later from complications related to his injuries. Among his unfinished works at the time of his death was Harmony, a sculpture that was poised to become one of his most significant and iconic pieces.

The Art of Aristide Maillol

As a member of the Nabi group, Aristide Maillol opened up new stylistic possibilities, particularly through his emphasis on color and his innovative patchwork technique, as seen in works like The Wave. His early paintings reflect the characteristic large flat swaths of color and simple shapes associated with the movement, revealing a passion for experimentation, a trait that would come to define his sculptural work.

Gauguin's work had a profound impact on the artist. He later remarked, "Gauguin's painting was a revelation to me. Instead of enlightening me, the École des Beaux-Arts had thrown a veil over my eyes. Standing in front of the Pont-Aven paintings, I had a feeling that I too could work in that spirit. Right then I told myself that what I did would be good when it had Gauguin's approval."

Aristide Maillol's wife Clotilde had a significant influence on his art, marking the beginning of his focus on nudes, with his work starting to feature them prominently for the first time.

Aristide Maillol Sculpture: Reviving Classical Ideals in Modern Art

Aristide Maillol turned to sculpture during a period when the emphasis was on capturing movement, yet he played a pivotal role in shifting attitudes within modern sculpture by returning to classical principles. His approach to the female nude was distinctive: rather than depicting it as an active subject or an object of desire, he adopted a more analytical perspective that allowed him to challenge contemporary trends in modernist sculpture.

The artist's monumental figures closely echoed Classical Grecian sculpture, using the human body to explore relationships between mass, volume, line, and contour. His reintroduction of this more studied and measured approach to modern sculpture was both audacious and original. By deliberately avoiding exaggerated movements and gestures, Maillol focused on achieving a simplified naturalism in his figures.

The notion that the artist approached his work with an entirely objective eye overlooks the fact that his sculpture often carried allegorical meaning. In the years leading up to the Second World War, his works conveyed a palpable sense of apprehension. "The River", for instance, captures this tension, with the figure's aura of terror made more immediate as the viewer must look downwards to meet the terrified gaze of the fallen nude.

In his later years, Aristide Maillol believed he was finally creating true "works of art." Responding to the horrors of war, he turned his focus to the natural beauty of the female form. In his final piece, "Harmony", Maillol sculpted his preferred model, Dina Vierny, directly from life rather than relying on sketches. This approach brought a new vitality to the work, making it feel more "alive" than his earlier, more analytical sculptures.

Aristide Maillol: Misjudgments and Role in Resisting Nazism

A misjudgment on Aristide Maillol's part led to damaging rumors about his reputation. German officers frequently visited his work, and although the artist had little choice but to accommodate them, it raised suspicions. In 1942, he made another controversial decision by accepting an invitation to an exhibition in Paris featuring Arno Brekker, a sculptor sanctioned by the Nazis. According to Bertrand Lorquin, Maillol's acceptance was driven by his desire to visit his studio at Marly-le-Roi and check on his abandoned sculptures. He was unaware of the political implications of his actions, which led to accusations of collaboration with the Germans, tarnishing his reputation further.

Maillol played a crucial role in resisting the spread of Nazism during the Second World War. While working in his studio in Banyuls, he was informed by Dina Vierny about her activities in the French Resistance and her efforts to help people escape from the Germans. Maillol immediately offered his studio in Puig del Las as a refuge and assisted her with safe passage over the Pyrenees. His support was instrumental in establishing the clandestine network known as "le réseau Maillol" (the Maillol network), which helped people cross the border into Spain.