Diogène Ulysse Napoléon Maillart (28 October 1840 – 3 August 1926) was a French painter, illustrator, designer, teacher and art critic.

Biography

He was born in

Lachaussée-du-Bois-d'Écu Lachaussée-du-Bois-d'Écu () is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. See also * Communes of the Oise department The following is a list of the 680 Communes of France, communes of the Oise Departments of France, department ...

. His first art lessons were at the "Imperial School of Design" (a government-sponsored craft school). Later, he studied at the

École des Beaux-arts ; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...

in the workshop of

Léon Cogniet Léon Cogniet (29 August 1794 – 20 November 1880) was a French history and portrait painter. He is probably best remembered as a teacher, with more than one hundred notable students. Biography He was born in Paris. His father was a painter ...

. He won the

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

in 1864, aged only twenty-three. After returning from Rome in 1869, he was appointed a Professor of drawing at the Gobelins Manufactory, a position he occupied for fifty years. From 1873 to 1877, he was the Inspector of art works. He exhibited in the

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...

every year until his death in 1926 in Paris. After the founding of the Third Republic, he was involved in the decoration of several public buildings, including murals for Saint-Augustin Church (which had been started during the Second Empire), ceiling and staircase decorations for the Town Hall in the 3rd arrondissement and ornaments in the

Bon Marché Bon or Bön (), also known as Yungdrung Bon (, ), is the indigenous Tibetan religion which shares many similarities and influences with Tibetan Buddhism.Samuel 2012, pp. 220–221. It initially developed in the tenth and eleventh centuries but ...

(now gone).(f
Encyclopédie Picardie
/ref> At the request of Prince Von Donnersmarck and his wife (known as "

La Païva Esther Lachmann (; better known as La Païva (); 7 May 181921 January 1884) was a French courtesan. She was also an investor, architecture patron and a jewel collector. Rising from modest circumstances in her native Russia to becoming one of the ...

"), Maillart decorated the ceiling of in

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( ; ; ; ; Silesian German: ; ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heav ...

. The building was burned by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

in 1945 and the ruins were demolished in 1961. A series of murals he created for the City Hall in

Beauvais Beauvais ( , ; ) is a town and Communes of France, commune in northern France, and prefecture of the Oise Departments of France, département, in the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, north of Paris. The Communes of France, commune o ...

also fared poorly; being destroyed by German bombs in 1940. In addition to his painting, he was also a prolific author, writing a work on

Byzantine art Byzantine art comprises the body of artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the decline of Rome, decline of western Rome and ...

and a general history of the fine arts, in two volumes (among others). He became a knight in the

Légion d’honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

in 1885.Documentation
@ the Base Léonore. His grave in the

Cimetière du Montparnasse Montparnasse Cemetery () is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, in the city's 14th arrondissement. The cemetery is roughly 47 acres and is the second largest cemetery in Paris. The cemetery has over 35,000 graves, and approximately 1 ...

is adorned with a bust sculpted by

Henri-Léon Gréber Henri-Léon Greber (28 May 1854 – 4 June 1941) was a French sculptor, and medallist. His son was the architect Jacques Gréber. Active in the United States, he produced a fountain sculpture of four equestrian statues for Harbor Hill in 1910, ...

Selected paintings

File:Mes filles, Eva et Jeanne.jpg, His daughters,
Eva and Jeanne File:Maillart, Diogène - Homère dans l'île de Scyros - 1864.JPG,

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

on the
Island of

Skyros Skyros (, ), in some historical contexts Romanization of Greek, Latinized Scyros (, ), is an island in Greece. It is the southernmost island of the Sporades, an archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Around the 2nd millennium BC, the island was known as ...

(1864) File:Le jeune néophyte chrétien.jpg, The Young Christian Neophyte (1892) File:Maillart, Half-nude boy.jpg, Half-nude Study
of a Young Man (1864)

References

External links

ArtNet: More works by Maillart
* (fr
Diogène Maillart on Base Mistral/Joconde

Diogène Maillart at the Frick Art Reference Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maillart, Diogene 1840 births 1926 deaths People from Oise French history painters Recipients of the Legion of Honour Prix de Rome for painting Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery 19th-century French painters French male painters 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists 19th-century French male artists

Biography

Selected paintings

References

Further reading

External links