Woodcut printed in black on warm cream Japan paper, 1895-98. 170x196 mm; 6 3/4x7 3/4 inches, full margins. Second state (of 2). Edition of 60. Initialed and numbered 33/60 in pencil, lower margin. Ex-collection Henri M. Petiet, with the ink stamp (see Lugt 2021a, verso). A superb, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce, early woodcut, with strong contrasts.
Born in a small fishing village in the French Pyrenees, Maillol (1861-1944) moved to Paris in 1885 to study at the École des Beaux-Arts. Despite training with acclaimed painters Alexandre Cabanel and Jean-Léon Gérôme, he quickly became disillusioned by the restrictive academic environment. In 1894, he joined the Nabis, a group of young artists influenced by the decorative elements of Art Nouveau and Impressionism, and began exhibiting with them. Maillol became known for his stylized, flattened portraits of women, like the current woodcut; as well as for his modernized femlae nude sculptures treated with classical emphasis. Guérin 8.
