Aristide Maillol: Classical Idealism and Form
An exhibition of fifty-five (55) woodcuts
Les Georgiques de Virgile

         Maillol grew up at a turning point in art history. Impressionism was drawing to a close, and soon approaching was the modernism movement of a new century. At the age of 13, Maillol showed remarkable talent in drawing and an interest in creating cartoons for textile production. Like Goya, he spent his first years mainly as a tapestry designer.

         Following an education at Banyuls and Perpignan, which was founded on the classics and the humanities--on Virgil and Goethe--he went to Paris to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Among his acquaintances of artist friends was the painter Paul Gauguin who encouraged him with his work. Maillol's interest in the printed medium began with lithographs and woodcuts--perhaps through the influence of Gauguin.

"Maillol's art is the embodiment of that spontaneous form which is intrinsically perfect."

         Maillol's exquisite woodcuts were inspired by works of antiquity as well as the people and land of his native town Banyuls-sur-Mer in Southern France. In 1908 Maillol decided to tour Greece-having been born in an area of the Mediterranean which was originally a Greek, then Roman colony.

         It was upon his return that he began to execute a few drawings for woodcuts based on the classical writings of Virgile. But, it was not until 1944, just prior to his death that he completed the entire set of one hundred-three images. The linear purity of the woodcuts and engravings produced by Maillol resemble the line drawing of the Greek vase painters. The Les Georgiques de Virgile suite illustrates a collection of four didactic poems on agriculture and arboriculture in the form of songs, telling of the soil, vine growing, herbs and bees. The songs were written by the Latin poet Virgile (70 B.C. -19 B.C.) to stimulate the Roman desire for engaging more aggressively in the pursuits of agriculture.