Aristide Maillol

Private Collection, United States
Acquired from the above in 2011

Judith Cladel, Maillol: Sa vie, son oeuvre, ses idées, Paris, 1937, mentioned p. 63 
Denys Chevalier, Maillol, Italy, 1970, illustration of another cast p. 5
Waldemar George, Maillol, Paris, 1971, illustration of another cast p. 63 (titled La Laveuse)
Waldemar George, Aristide Maillol et l'âme de la sculpture, Neuchâtel, 1977, illustration of another cast p. 63
Maillol (exhibition catalogue), Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, 1978, illustration of another cast n.p.
Josep Sanchez i Ferré, Aristide Maillol, Barcelona, 1991, illustration of another cast p. 11
Wendy Slatkin, Aristide Maillol in the 1890s, Ann Arbor, 1982, mentioned p. 83
Nabis, 1888-1900 (exhibition catalogue), Kunsthaus, Zurich & Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1993-94, illustration of another cast p. 195
Maillol (exhibition catalogue), L'Annonciade, Saint-Tropez, 1994, illustration of another cast p. 38
Ursel Berger & Jörg Zutter, Aristide Maillol (exhibition catalogue), Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin & Musée cantonal des beaux-arts, Lausanne, 1996, no. 22b, illustration of another cast p. 87
Bertrand Lorquin, Aristide Maillol, Geneva, 2002, illustration of another cast p. 37
Maillol (exhibition catalogue), Centre cultural Caixa Catalunya, Barcelona, 2009, illustration of another cast p. 119

The present lifetime cast stems from Maillol’s endless exploration of the female form, his favored subject matter, and his increased interest in decorative objects and the permeation of art in the everyday. Maillol was deeply influenced by the Nabis theories advocating that art should infuse all aspects of life, and he was fascinated in creating objects that could equally be beautiful and useful. This washerwoman was conceived in 1896, the year of the birth of his son Lucien to his wife Clotilde Narcisse, and it is thought to have been created as a door-knocker and thus cast from particularly durable material.

Speaking of Maillol’s art, John Rewald states, “The movement which animates his statues came less from any exterior effort or search for the picturesque than from an inner force which seems to make his women breathe and the blood flow through the clay and bronze, or the stone and wood of his figures. And every detail, every profile is filled with the same power, the same beauty, the same spirit” (John Rewald, “Maillol,” in Waldemar George, Aristide Maillol, Neuchâtel, 1965, p. 217). The present work was probably cast for Ambroise Vollard, the legendary dealer who propelled Maillol to fame. The two met in 1900 and by 1902 Maillol was granted his first solo exhibition at the Vollard gallery, where an iron example of La Lavandière was exhibited.