383 - Aristide MAILLOL (1861–1944)

Aristide MAILLOL (1861–1944) Female Nude Blue pencil on paper Monogrammed in the lower right corner Pencil sketch on the back of the sheet 24 x 18.5 cm (Age spots) We would like to thank Mr. Olivier Lorquin for confirming the authenticity of this work. The condition report is available upon request at the following email address: contact@neo-encheres.com PROVENANCE Private collection in Paris. Same provenance as the drawing by Jean-Jacques Sempé featured in this sale. Description: Born in Banyuls-sur-Mer in 1861, Aristide Maillol arrived in Paris in 1881 and enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied under Jean-Léon Gérôme and Alexandre Cabanel. His early paintings bear the influence of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Paul Gauguin; it was under the influence of the latter that he turned to tapestry and opened a studio in Banyuls in 1893. Beginning in 1895, he began modeling small terracotta figures and gradually devoted himself to sculpture. *La Méditerranée*, completed in 1902—the year of his first exhibition at Ambroise Vollard’s gallery—establishes a classical and serene ideal of the female form, in contrast to the dynamism of Auguste Rodin. Count Harry Kessler commissioned him to create woodcuts for Virgil’s *Eclogues*, and Henry Moore would later acknowledge Maillol as an influence from his youth. Dina Vierny, his model and companion during his final years, founded the Maillol Museum in Paris. Drawing was central to his entire creative process: whether in pencil, red chalk, or charcoal, Maillol tirelessly studied the female nude, using a minimalist approach that foreshadowed the full, serene volumes of his sculptures.