View of the exhibition Maillol and Greece at the Maillol Museum in Banyuls-sur-Mer © Jean Vayssié

Although Maillol did not visit Greece until he was 47, his imagination was already deeply steeped in classical culture, shaped by his years of training in Paris and his frequent visits to the Louvre. From the moment he set foot on Greek soil, the aesthetic shock was coupled with a sense of absolute familiarity. The artist was struck by the striking resemblance between the landscapes, contours, and light of his native Catalonia and the coasts of Attica. “When I arrived, I thought I’d returned to Banyuls!” he wrote in his travel journal—the only personal diary of his life, featured in the exhibition.  

This quest for purity found its anchor in the archaic Greek art of the 6th century B.C. Standing before the kouros statues of Delphi, Maillol exclaimed: “Now that’s sculpture!” Far from being a mere imitation, this journey served as a powerful confirmation of his own artistic explorations: a simplification of forms, a rejection of academic detail, and a plastic synthesis that he shared with his peers Cézanne, Gauguin, and the Nabis.