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Welcome to Spaightwood Galleries, Inc.
120 Main Street, Upton MA 01568-6193; 800-809-3343; email: spaightwood@gmail.com
Aristide Maillol (French, 1861-1944): Lithographs for Dialogues des Courtisanes
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Aristide Maillol (French, 1861-1944) began as a tapestry designer attracted to the Nabis, but after c. 1900 he concentrated on sculpture and book illustration (particularly of classical texts like Vergil's Georgics, Ovid's Ars Amoris (Art of Love), Lucian of Samosata's Dialogues des Courtisanes [2nd-century AD], and Longus' Daphnis and Chloe. Although Maillol was briefly involved with the Nabis group (Bonnard, Denis, Vuillard and others), he was soon drawn to sculpture and by 1900, he had attracted the attention of Ambroise Vollard, premier dealer for the Impressionists, Post Impressionists, and soon the moderns, including Picasso, Chagall, and Rouault. In 1902, Vollard gave Maillol his first exhibition, featuring his tapestries and his terra cotta sculptures. Vollard had bronze casts made of these and Rodin was an admirer of his Leda, paving the way for his much larger marbles and bronzes. As Antoinette Le Normand-Romain suggests in her essay on Maillol in The Grove Dictionary of Art, when Maillol began devoting most of his artistic energy to sculpture, he quickly came to realize that verisimilitude was not his goal: "In 1900 Maillol began work on his first major sculpture, a Seated Woman for which his wife posed, which was later named La Méditerranée. The first version (New York, MOMA), finished in 1902, was very close to his model. He noted, however, that it was not sufficient ‘to have a model and to copy it. No doubt nature is the foundation of an artist’s labours. But art does not lie in the copying of nature’ " (Puig, 1965). Thus he resumed work and the definitive version was exhibited at the Salon d’Automne of 1905. He wanted the only meaning of this sculpture to reside in its formal beauty. With his acute sensitivity to form, he tightened the composition, which had been developed from a single viewpoint, into an almost perfect cube, simplifying the contours in the process. The sobriety and perfection of the form and gravity of La Méditerranée struck Octave Mirbeau and Maurice Denis as well as André Gide, who wrote (1905) of its ‘silence.’ All three saw Maillol as a classic artist in the mould of Cézanne" (20: 119-21, here at 121). Maillol achieved his desire and became one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. His drawings and lithographs are highly sought after as well. Maillol's works can be found in many major museums (e.g., the Museum of Modern Art features two of his sculptures in their sculpture garden and owns a total of 30 works by him including drawings, lithographs, and his woodcuts for livres d'artiste.
Much of Maillol's later history is involved with his last model, Dina Vierny, whom he first met in c. 1934, when she was still a teenager. Attracted by her intelligence (as Waldemar Georges observes, "Reading was her passion, and although she chose to study chemistry she was equally attracted to politics, economics, sociology, and the humanities. Her mind was influenced and her spirit tempered by contact with the great poets" (29). When Maillol met her (at the recommendation of the future architect of the Musée d'art moderne) "Dina's physical type and facial structure correspondedd to Maillol's aesthetic canon, and it was this similarity which aroused the artist's interest" (30-31). For the first two years, she posed for the head only after which she began posing for him for his nudes. "Dina . . . was to bring Maillol the flexibility, balance, and intellectual attitudes which corresponded to his views of the world" (30). In 1938, she spent much time with him: "Maillol admitted that poetry was food and drink to him and together with Dina he read not only the classics of Greece and Rome, which he illustrated, but also Les Chants de Maldorer, Les Fleurs de Mal, Les Illuminations, and the work of Mallarmé and Valery." Dina also introduced him to Freud, Heidegger, and Jean-Paul Sartre. George observes that some of what they read conflicted with his artistic and moral sense; some of them bored him, but all of them brought him more firmly into the "modern" world's concerns, which quickly became personally acute after the Nazi invasion of France. Food became scarce, his wartime diet was seriously diminshed, and Dina and Maillol's son Lucien daily walked miles to try to buy him food on the black market and Dina several times crossed the border into Spain to buy oil for his lamps (p. 32) She also served as his messenger, carrying letters to Bonnard, Matisse, and Raoul Dufy. for all of whom she also posed. In addition to her artistic activities, howeever, she was also engaged in the Resistance. According to George, Dina "built up a small network to enable the resistance and refugees from Germany to escape over the Spanish frontier." Maillol aided her in this by letting her use one of his studios as a hiding place for refugees (who includedd Franz Werfel, Thomas Mann's son, and André Breton) to escape occupied France . THe Vichy government heard of this and confined her under house arrest. She escaped and went to Paris, where she was arrested by the Gestapo and spent six months in prison. After the libertation of Paris, it was impossible for her to get back to Maillol's house and it was in Paris that she heard about Maillol's death.
After Maillol's death her involvement with his art only deepened. Maillol had made his son Lucien and Dina responsible for his works and Maillol's family invited Dina to return to the family home. After his mother's death, Lucien made over all of his rights to her. She opened a gallery at 36 rue Jacob in Paris, now the scene of the Musée Maillol and the Fondation Dina Vierny. She was soon recognized legally as the only expert on Maillol's works and her classification of his sculptures has become the basis for modern studies of Maillol the scuptor. She devoted her energies to collecting Maillol's works and for organizing exhibitions of his sculptures.
Selected bibliography: Beatrice Bormann, Maillol and Dina (London: Marlborough Fine Art, 2001); Marisa Lluisa Borras, Maillol, 1861-1944 (Barcelona: Centre Cultural de la Caixa de Pensions, Barcelona, 1979); Pierro Camo, Maillol Mon Ami (Lausanne: Editions du Grand-Chéne, 1950); Waldemar George, Aristide Maillol. With a Biography by Dina Vierny (London: Cory, Adams & Mackay, 1965); Marcel Guerin, Catalogue Raisonné de L’Oeuvre Grave et Lithographie de Aristide Maillol Tome Premier: Les Bois (Geneva: Editions Pierre Cailler, 1965), Bertrand Lorquin, Le Musée Maillol s'expose (Paris: Gallimard, 2008); Bertrand Lorquin, Maillol Peintre (Paris: Fondation Dina Vierny-Musée Maillol, 2001); Aristide Maillol, Maillol Nudes: 35 Lithographs [for Dialogues of the Courtesans] (NY: Dover Books, 1980); Aristide Maillol, Maillol Woodcuts: 303 Great Book Illustrations (NY: Dover Books, 1979); Hans Albert Peters, Maillol (Baden-Baden: Staatlichhe Kunsthalle, 1978); John Rewald, Maillol (London: Hyperion, 1939); John Rewald et al, Aristide Maillol: 1861-1944 (NY: Guggenheim Museim, 1975); Wendy Slatkin, Aristide Maillol in the 1890s (Ann Arbor: UMI REsearch Press, 1982).
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Justification page for Maillol's Dialogues des Courtisanes. The regular edition consisted of 275 impressions on ha d-made Canson and Montgolfier off-white (almost oatmeal colored) paper made especially for Maillol containing 7 full-page black-and-white lithographs and 28 text illustrations (as above). The deluuxe edition of 50 contained the regular text and lithographs plus a separate suite of all of the lithographs hors texte in sanguine. We have a complete set of the regular edition plus 9 lithographs from the sepatate suite in sanguine of 50 without text. All of the lithographs are signed with Maillol's stamp; some of the lithographs have been trimmed outside the image area for reasons known only to God. Happily, in 1980, Dover books published an inexpensive paperback reproducing all 35 of the lithgraphs in black and white. Since the catalogue raisonn´of Maillol's etchings and lithographs is rare and very difficult to find, we are including the page numbers on which the works will be found in this edition.
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Torso (Dover, p. 20). Original lithograph, c. 1939. One of 275 impressions signed in signed with Maillol's monogram stamp (there were also 50 impressions in sanguie). There are a few lines of text at the top of the page, but it could be matted so they they don't show. The model for this drawing was probably Dina Vierny, his preferred model from c. 1936 on. Sheet size: 383x297mm. Image size: 210x95mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Standing woman with towel fixing her hair (Dover, p. 13). Original lithograph, c. 1939. One of 275 impressions signed in signed with Maillol's monogram stamp One of 275 impressions signed in signed with Maillol's monogram stamp (there were also 50 impressions in sanguie). This impression is annotated 171/275, but it came as part of an almost complete set of the portfolio numbered 246 on the justification page, suggesting that someone was completing a portfolio that had previously had the sheet removed. The model for this drawing was probably Dina Vierny, his preferred model from c. 1936 on. Sheet size: 383x288mm. Image size: 355x155mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Standing woman seen from the rear adjusting her hair (Dover, p. 11). Original lithograph in sanguine, c. 1939. One of 275 impressions signed in signed with Maillol's monogram stamp (there were also 50 impressions in sanguie). The model for this drawing was probably Dina Vierny, his preferred model from c. 1936 on. Sheet size: 375x282mm. Image size: 300x110mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Walking woman seen looking to her left (Dover, p. 17) .Original lithograph, c. 1939. One of 275 impressions signed in signed with Maillol's monogram stamp (there were also 50 impressions in sanguie). The model for this drawing was probably Dina Vierny, his preferred model from c. 1936 on. Sheet size: 382x282mm. Image size: 350x145mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Seated woman holding her right calf (Dover, p. 21). Original lithograph c. 1939. One of 275 impressions signed in signed with Maillol's monogram stamp (there were also 50 impressions in sanguie). The model for this drawing was probably Dina Vierny, his preferred model from c. 1936 on. Sheet size: 328x252mm. Image size: 255x190mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Seated woman holding her left leg (Dover, p. 5). One of 275 impressions signed in signed with Maillol's monogram stamp (there were also 50 impressions in sanguie). There are a three lines of text at the top of the page, but it could be matted so they they don't show (as we have done). The model for this drawing was probably Dina Vierny, his preferred model from c. 1936 on. Sheet size: 380x285mm. Image size: 180x150mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Woman drying herself with a towel (Dover, frontispiece). Original lithograph, c. 1939. One of 275 impressions signed in signed with Maillol's monogram stamp (there were also 50 impressions in sanguie). The model for this drawing was probably Dina Vierny, his preferred model from c. 1936 on. Sheet size: 380x286mm. Image size: 340x153mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Woman looking down (Dover p. 9). Original lithograph, c. 1939. One of 275 impressions signed in signed with Maillol's monogram stamp (there were also 50 impressions in sanguie). The model for this drawing was probably Dina Vierny, his preferred model from c. 1936 on. Sheet size: 380x286mm. Image size: 338x100mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Standing Woman seen from the rear (Dover p. 2). Original lithograph, c. 1939. One of 275 impressions signed in signed with Maillol's monogram stamp (there were also 50 impressions in sanguie). The model for this drawing was probably Dina Vierny, his preferred model from c. 1936 on. Sheet size: 382x290mm. Image size: 335x125mm. Price: SOLD.
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Woman sleeping (Dover p. 3 top). Original lithograph, c. 1939. One of 275 impressions signed in signed with Maillol's monogram stamp (there were also 50 impressions in sanguie). The model for this drawing was probably Dina Vierny, his preferred model from c. 1936 on. The paper has been trimmed (though it is larger than as shown) and there is text on the verso. Sheet size: 194x281mm. Image size: 72x182mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Woman holding her left leg up (Dover p. 15). Original lithograph, c. 1939. One of 275 impressions signed in signed with Maillol's monogram stamp (there were also 50 impressions in sanguie). The model for this drawing was probably Dina Vierny, his preferred model from c. 1936 on. The paper has been trimmed (though it is larger than as shown) and there is text on the verso. Sheet size: 194x281mm. Image size: 124x213mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Lovers embracing (Dover, p. 27). Original lithograph in sanguine, c. 1939. One of 275 impressions signed in signed with Maillol's monogram stamp (there were also 50 impressions in sanguie). Once again, the margins were trimmed. There is also some text on the verso. The model for this drawing was probably Dina Vierny, his preferred model from c. 1936 on. Sheet size: 194x278mm. Image size: 135x160mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.
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Spaightwood Galleries, Inc.
To purchase, call us at 1-800-809-3343 (1-508-529-2511 in Upton MA & vicinity) or send an email to spaightwood@gmail.com.
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For directions and visiting information, please call. We are, of course, always available over the web and by telephone (see above for contact information). Click the following for links to past shows and artists. For a visual tour of the gallery, please click here. For information about Andy Weiner and Sonja Hansard-Weiner, please click here. For a list of special offers currently available, see Specials.
All works are sold with an unconditional guarantee of authenticity (as described in our website listing).
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Visiting hours: Saturday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and Sunday noon to 6:00 pm and other times by arrangement.
Please call to confirm your visit. Browsers and guests are welcome.
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