Biography

He goes back to Catalonia in summer, first to Banyuls to his aunt Llúcia's house and then to Barcelona where his older brother Rafael has been working as a wine merchant since the 1870s. He gets bored with his course at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and is moved by the Gauguin's work and starts to get interested in tapestries, which he studies mostly in the museum in Cluny. He meets Gauguin, who encourages him to continue.

1893-1899
He exhibits regularly in the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts until the Salon d’Automne opens, where he sends hangings, wooden pieces, small sculptures and glazed pottery. He also exhibits in the Salon de la Libre Esthétique in Brussels several times. Gauguin speaks of this Salon in the magazine Essais d’art libre. His financial difficulties make him go back to the capital and he decides to return to Roussillon to establish a tapestry workshop in Banyuls. He takes on two girls, Angèlica and Clotilde Narcís as workers.
He falls in love with Clotilde and returns to Paris with her. He is forced to accept help from George-Daniel de Montfreid out of poverty and desperation who ends letting the young couple stay in his house. He starts creating sculptures in 1895. Maillol and Clotilde marry on 7 July 1896 in Paris.
The only child of the artist, Llucià Josep Rafael Maillol, is born on 30 October. He becomes a painter, does not marry and dies without any children on 14 June 1972. He starts creating sculptures in 1895, the year when he also exhibits Rural Concertin the Casa de la Vila in Banyuls-sur-Mer. This tapestry was commissioned by Princess Bibesco, who he met shortly before.
Maillol meets Princess Bibesco, who commissions a tapestry. Working in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges from 1897, he starts working in a real studio. He meets Picasso, who visits him.

1900-1910
His friends from the Nabi group of artists met at his house: Maurice Denis, Ker Xavier Roussel, Édouard Vuillard, Thadée Natanson, Pierre Bonnard, the poet Marc Lafargue, the Hungarian painter Rippl-Rónai and Henri Matisse later on. He was good friends with these artists throughout his life. "Fifty years of friendship and not a cloud in sight" Maurice Denis said.
He joins with Esteve Terrús, Gustau Violet, Lluís Bausil, Emile Gaudissard and George-Daniel Monfreid to create the first artistic group from Roussillon. The group, placing their bets on cultural decentralisation, presents its works to the public in northern Catalunya by establishing a salon. The Roussillon Artist Salon is first held in 1901 and subsequently in 1902, 1903, 1907 and 1912.