[[Image:'The River', a lead sculpture by Aristide Maillol, 1943 (cast 1948), Museum of Modern Art (New York City).jpg|thumb|right|320px|[[Aristide Maillol]], ''The River,'' lead, 1943 (cast 1948), [[Museum of Modern Art, New York City]]]]
[[Image:Aristide Maillol la nuit 1902-1.jpg|thumb|right|320px|[[Aristide Maillol]], ''The Night,'' (1920), [[Stuttgart]]]]

'''Aristide Maillol''' ([[December 8]] [[1861]]–[[September 27]] [[1944]]) was a [[France|French]] [[Catalans|Catalan]] [[Sculpture|sculptor]] and [[painter]].

Maillol was born in [[Banyuls-sur-Mer]], [[Roussillon]]. He decided at an early age to become a painter, and moved to [[Paris]] in 1881 to study art. After several applications, his enrollment in the [[École des Beaux-Arts]] was accepted in 1885, and he studied there under [[Jean-Léon Gérôme]] and [[Alexandre Cabanel]]. His early paintings show the influence of his contemporaries [[Pierre Puvis de Chavannes]] and [[Paul Gauguin]].

Gauguin encouraged his growing interest in decorative art, an interest that led Maillol to take up [[tapestry]] design. In 1893 Maillol opened a tapestry workshop in Banyuls, producing works whose high technical and esthetic quality gained him recognition for renewing this art form in France. He began making small [[terra cotta]] sculptures in [[1895]], and within a few years his concentration on sculpture led to the abandonment of his work in tapestry.<!--removed this because I can't find any source supporting it: Studied under the renowned teacher [[Antoine Bourdelle]]-->

The subject of nearly all of Maillol's mature work is the female body, treated with a [[Classicism|classical]] emphasis on stable forms. The figurative style of his large bronzes is perceived as an important precursor to the greater simplifications of [[Henry Moore]] and [[Alberto Giacometti]], and his serene classicism set a standard for European (and [[United States|American]]) figure sculpture until the end of [[World War II]].

His important public commissions include a 1912 commission for a monument to [[Paul Cézanne|Cézanne]], as well as numerous war memorials commissioned after [[World War I]].

He died in Banyuls at the age of eighty-three, in an automobile accident. While driving home during a thunder storm, the car in which he was a passenger skidded off the road and rolled over. A large collection of Maillol's work is maintained at the Maillol Museum in [[Paris]], which was established by [[Dina Vierny]], Maillol's companion during the last 10 years of his life.

His home a few kilometers outside Banyuls, also the site of his final resting place, has been turned into a delightful little museum where a number of his works and sketches are displayed.

==References==
* Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, “Aristide Maillol, 1861-1944”, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1975.

==Other links==
* [http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/masters/maillol/maillol.html Masters of 20th Century Figure Sculpture]
* [http://www.museemaillol.com/index2.html Maillol Museum]

[[Category:1861 births|Maillol, Aristide]]
[[Category:1944 deaths|Maillol, Aristide]]
[[Category:Catalan painters|Maillol, Aristide]]
[[Category:Catalan sculptors|Maillol, Aristide]]
[[Category:French painters|Maillol, Aristide]]
[[Category:French Roman Catholics|Maillol, Aristide]]
[[Category:French sculptors|Maillol, Aristide]]
[[Category:Modern sculptors|Maillol, Aristide]]
[[Category:Road accident deaths in France|Maillol, Aristide]]

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