In June 1902,
Maillol had his first one-man-show at the gallery of Vollard. Thirty-three pieces of work, including
sculpture, ceramics, tapestries and furniture, were exhibited. Octave Mirbeau, a renowned writer who was at
the age of 56, found Maillol at the exhibition and purchased “Leda”. Mirbeau showed it to Rodin, and wrote about
Rodin’s reaction in his letter to Maillol:
“He picked up
your Leda, just as I had done, and looked at it intently, examining it from
every angle, turning it round in every direction. ‘It is most beautiful’; he said, ‘what an
artist!’ He looked at it again, and went
on: ‘Do you know why it is so beautiful and why one can spend hours looking at
it? It is because it makes no attempt to
arouse curiosity’. And there was a look
of melancholy in his eyes. ‘I do not
know, I swear I do not know of any modern piece of sculpture that is of such an
absolute beauty, and absolute purity, so evidently a masterpiece.’” (Rewald 1939,
p.13)
Mirbeau cites Rodin’s words in another place as follows:
“What is
admirable in Maillol, or, I would say, eternal, it is the purity, clarity,
transparency of his skills and thoughts; that is, none of his works, so far as I
have seen, attracts viewers’ curiosity.
Nothing, never.” (Mirbeau 1921,
p.29-30)
Rodin seems to have noticed immediately that things had remained intact in Maillol from those days he spent alone on the seashore of Banyuls forty years ago.
