Aristide Maillol

In 1904, the German art historian Julius Meier-Graefe published his work 'Entwicklungsgeschichte der modernen Kunst'. He was the first art historian to write an art-theoretical analysis on the sculptural works of Aristide Maillol. This is where Modernism begins for sculpture, Meier-Graefe wrote. Characteristic features of Maillol’s statues in bronze and stone, or in a few individual cases in wood and terracotta, are the clearly defined outlines and smooth surfaces that lend his figures a natural expression. His ‚Nus’ (nudes) – generally females in relaxed, unaffected poses – embody an ideal that is reminiscent of Greek Antiquity. His works were still well received in Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Frankfurter Zeitung included a review on the major Maillol exhibition at the Kunsthalle in Basel in 1933, even attributing him the role as a precursor for sculpture in the ‘new Reich’. This notion however did not find any emulators of note.

Maillol’s first successful exhibition was held in 1902 at the Galerie Ambroise Vollard in Paris. Alfred Flechtheim was his most important gallery owner outside France and was already represented at the exhibition at the opening of Flechtheim’s Düsseldorf gallery in 1913 with drawings, lithographs, the bronze bust of Renoir and other works. He also participated in other exhibitions between 1913 and 1932. The first major exhibition of Maillol’s work in Germany, according to Flechtheim, was at his gallery in Berlin in 1928. It comprised more than 75 works, including 46 sculptures, the majority of which came from private collections, especially that of Harry Graf Kessler (1868–1937). The German patron of modern art, Count Kessler, had discovered Maillol earlier than Flechtheim, buying directly from the artist in his studio around 1904/1905. Flechtheim acted as an intermediary for Kessler and other collectors on numerous occasions.

Letter from Aristide Maillol supporting Flechtheim’s application for naturalisation:

«Marly le roi, 10 juin 1936. Mon cher ami. Pour ma part je serais heureux que vous soyez des nôtres – Quand vous étiez à Berlin dans vos expositions vous avez toujours su à presenter l’art Français, et c’est de la peinture Française que l’on voyait surtout dans vos salles d’exposition. Je ne doute pas que l’on vous accorde d’être naturalisé français. Je m’en rejouirai votre devoué Maillol.»

(Marly-le-roi, 10 June, 1936. My dear friend. Personally, I would be very pleased to welcome you as one of us – when in Berlin, you have always shown you know how to present French art at your exhibitions, and it is French painting in particular that one can see in your exhibition rooms. I have no doubt that you will be granted French citizenship. I would be  very happy for you. Your devoted Maillol.)