349 - Fernand Maillaud (1862–1948)

Fernand Maillaud (1862–1948) Oxen and a Cart Crossing a Bridge Oil on its original canvas 46.2 x 55.4 cm Expert: Mégane OLLIVIER Description: Born in 1862 in Mouhet, in the Indre department, Fernand Maillaud studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under Adolphe Yvon. Introduced by the poet Maurice Rollinat—whom he met in Fresselines—to the painter Ferdinand Humbert, he spent several summers in the Creuse Valley, where Claude Monet had painted in 1889, and thus became associated with the Crozant School alongside Armand Guillaumin, Léon Detroy, Paul Madeline, and Eugène Alluaud. A painter of farmwork, markets, and rural life in the Berry region, he exhibited at the Salon and the Salon d’Automne, as well as at the Devambez Gallery, and opened a tapestry workshop with his wife in Issoudun. These oxen crossing a bridge are part of the rural style that made his reputation.