DOI Heft:
No. 234 (September 1912)
DOI Artikel:Uzanne, Octave: Fernand Maillaud: a painter of the old french province of Berry
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21157#0302
Fernand Maillaud
achieve the realisation of his secret ambition of
becoming an artist. From his infancy he had drawn
trees, houses, horses, countrywomen, his little school
friends, sheep and cattle, and his drawings, childish
and simple though they were, were not destitute of
signs of originality. He continued his efforts in
all mediums, coloured chalks, oil and water-colour,
working unceasingly without, however, suffering
himself to have any illusions about the mediocrity
of the results.
When he migrated to Paris about his one-and-
twentieth year and paid a visit to the Louvre
the art of painting came like a revelation to this
coritemplator of the moors of Berry. He realised
how much he had yet to learn and what a laborious
struggle he would experience to be able at length
to achieve his aim—that of expressing the soul
of his province. He realised that he must un-
ceasingly devote himself to painting and occupy
himself with all classes of art, in order ultimately
to arrive at the one kind which should be essen-
tially his own. He therefore undertook'voluntarily
the execution of some large Biblical , frescoes for
the Convent of the Sacre Cceur at Issoudun, and
then some religious pictures for a church at Avallon
in the Yonne, and for Saint Chartier in Berry.
These important productions, which took several
years to complete and which assured him the
means of livelihood, perfected his technique and
gave him greater freedom in his work.
Fernand Maillaud soon returned to his beloved
Berry, to his landscapes of summer and autumn, to
the interpretation of the local customs, to the poesy
of the great oxen which, coupled beneath the yoke,
assist in the reaping and gathering in of the harvest.
He painted the old peasants of Nohaut, the reapers
resting beneath the trees, the goose-girls, the
washerwomen on the banks of the Indre, the miller
of Angibaud, the markets at Chatre or at Issoudun,
peasant interiors and the picturesque country of Bas-
Berry, shepherds and shepherdesses and goatherds,
putting into all his pictures a very moving note and
“ LAVEUSES SUR L’lNDRE PR^S NOHAUT”
280
BY FERNAND MAILLAUD
achieve the realisation of his secret ambition of
becoming an artist. From his infancy he had drawn
trees, houses, horses, countrywomen, his little school
friends, sheep and cattle, and his drawings, childish
and simple though they were, were not destitute of
signs of originality. He continued his efforts in
all mediums, coloured chalks, oil and water-colour,
working unceasingly without, however, suffering
himself to have any illusions about the mediocrity
of the results.
When he migrated to Paris about his one-and-
twentieth year and paid a visit to the Louvre
the art of painting came like a revelation to this
coritemplator of the moors of Berry. He realised
how much he had yet to learn and what a laborious
struggle he would experience to be able at length
to achieve his aim—that of expressing the soul
of his province. He realised that he must un-
ceasingly devote himself to painting and occupy
himself with all classes of art, in order ultimately
to arrive at the one kind which should be essen-
tially his own. He therefore undertook'voluntarily
the execution of some large Biblical , frescoes for
the Convent of the Sacre Cceur at Issoudun, and
then some religious pictures for a church at Avallon
in the Yonne, and for Saint Chartier in Berry.
These important productions, which took several
years to complete and which assured him the
means of livelihood, perfected his technique and
gave him greater freedom in his work.
Fernand Maillaud soon returned to his beloved
Berry, to his landscapes of summer and autumn, to
the interpretation of the local customs, to the poesy
of the great oxen which, coupled beneath the yoke,
assist in the reaping and gathering in of the harvest.
He painted the old peasants of Nohaut, the reapers
resting beneath the trees, the goose-girls, the
washerwomen on the banks of the Indre, the miller
of Angibaud, the markets at Chatre or at Issoudun,
peasant interiors and the picturesque country of Bas-
Berry, shepherds and shepherdesses and goatherds,
putting into all his pictures a very moving note and
“ LAVEUSES SUR L’lNDRE PR^S NOHAUT”
280
BY FERNAND MAILLAUD