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This Catalan attached to his native land takes both male and female models as a starting point for a reinvention of forms.
At the beginning of his career, Maillol was passionate about the decorative art of ceramics and tapestries. He watches Gauguin and Puvis de Chavannes and forges close ties with the Nabis. He seeks to transpose motifs onto various supports, creating veritable wall decorations as in his theme of the woman in the waves.
His first sculptures are made of earth and wood in small dimensions but give him his notoriety. He also exchanges works with Maurice Denis, Edouard Vuillard and Rodin.
His meeting with Count Kessler is decisive in his career. Maillol establishes a new classicism with his female bodies with sensual and robust anatomy in refined geometric shapes.
Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) Île-de-France, also known as La Bai- gneuse, or La Parisienne, or The Young Girl who walks in the water between 1925 and 1933 Pierre H. 152; W. 50; D. 55 cm Roubaix, André Diligent Museum of Art and Industry–La Piscine, dépôt du musée d’Orsay
Photo : © RMN-GP (musée d’Orsay) / A.Didierjean