Virtual Tour

Maillol the illustrator

Count Harry Kessler, Maillol's principal patron, found his true vocation as a demanding and discerning publisher. He proposed that Maillol should illustrate a new translation of Virgil's Eclogues that he had commissioned from the poet Marc Lafargue. Maillol's keen interest in materials prompted him to set about making his own fine-quality paper with a special thread for this bibliophile publication.

Due in part to his familiarity with all the decorative arts, Maillol illustrated a large variety of books over the course of his long career, from Daphnis and Chloe by Longus and Virgil's Eclogues and Georgics to Ronsard's Livret de folastries, published by the famous art dealer Ambroise Vollard, the man responsible for the revival of the art book in France.

Vergil, The Eclogues
Londres: Emery Walker Limited (para Cranach Presse), 1927
fº in-4º (335 x 265 mm). Ilustrado con 43 xilografias
Colección Dina Vierny, París