French painter and sculptor, born at Banyuls-sur-Mer. Educated at the lycee in Perpignan, Maillol found sculpture only of secondary interest at first. In 1882 he went to Paris and attended lectures by Gerome and Cabanel at the Ecole des beaux-arts. He discovered Puvis de Chavannes and Gauguin: "Gauguin's painting came as a revelation to me; the Ecole des beaux-arts had blunted my perception instead of sharpening it. Gazing at those Pont-Aven pictures I felt they wereàin the spirit in which I could work. I knew immediately that my work would be good if approved by Gauguin." He became interested in the renaissance of craftsmanship which accompanied Symbolism. He assiduously visited the Cluny Museum and achieved genuine decorative grilndeur. At Banyuls he directed a tapestry workshop; he also painted scenery for the Maurice Bauchor puppet theatre. Not until forty, when he settled in Banyuls, did he seriously take up sculpture, having been deeply impressed by archaic sculpture after a visit to Greece. Instead of
Rodin's dramatic expression Maillol preferred simple presence in static serenity, and worked almost exclusively from female models. Referring to Maillol in Theories Maurice Denis wrote: "Which of us, aware of the truth, would not willingly exchange our taste, technique and perception for Maillol's supreme gift of classicism? Respectful of the past, receptive to museum teaching, avoiding imitation of any period although loving all of them, he creates or rejuvenates their formulae without pandering to archaism. He is occasionally reminiscent of the Greeks of Phidias' epoch because he feels as directly as they did, their perfection is his perfection and in ... true conformity with his own instinct; his understanding of them does not stem from mere reasoning or imitation. He is a classical 'primitive'."

Post-Impressionism, Michel-Claude Jalard, Edito Service SA, Geneva