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The Hyacinthe Rigaud Museum of Art in Perpignan is presenting the exhibition Maillol / Picasso. Challenging the Classical Ideal from June 28 to December 31, 2025. Bringing together for the first time the works of Aristide Maillol and Pablo Picasso, this exhibition highlights their dialogue on form, the human body, and their shared Mediterranean heritage. Both deeply connected to Catalonia, Maillol and Picasso are brought together here through 110 works — sculptures, drawings, paintings, and prints — organized into six thematic sections.29 July 2025
Exhibition view / Courtesy of Ville de Perpignan, Musée d’art Hyacinthe Rigaud / Succession Picasso 2025 © Photo: P. Marchesan Everything seems to set Aristide Maillol and Pablo Picasso in opposition: two generations, two approaches, two visual languages. And yet, their confrontation reveals deep resonances. Both artists share a Mediterranean culture, a fascination with the female body, and a strong connection to Catalonia. Maillol pursued an idea of beauty rooted in balance and permanence. His work, often described as “classical,” seeks a universal form, free of pathos, sculpted in the southern light. Picasso, by contrast, moved through styles, deconstructed the figure, and explored the violence of desire, collapse, and chaos. But it is precisely in these contrasts that a fertile dialogue emerges. During his stays in Perpignan in the 1950s, Picasso rediscovered Maillol’s work, particularly Méditerranée, displayed in the town hall square. This encounter reawakened formal memories and inspired major works such as Women by the Sea (1956), in which the serene monumentality of Maillol’s figures reappears, transposed into a late Cubist language.
Raymond Fabre, Pablo Picasso touching the statue La Méditerranée by Aristide Maillol, in the inner courtyard of Perpignan’s town hall, September 24, 1954.
Maillol defined his work as a quest for the essential: “I invent nothing, no more than the apple tree can claim to have invented its apples.” In his sculptures, the purity of line and the balance of volumes express a timeless vision of the human figure. For her part, Danielle Orchard approaches painting with a sculptor’s sensibility, layering thin coats of oil paint to model her figures. She explains: “I’m interested in the way Maillol draws from Antiquity, and how his respect for abstraction resonates with my own reflections on painting.” This exhibition highlights an artistic lineage in which painting and sculpture respond to one another, emphasizing the continuity of a vision of the female body across time. These emblematic works invite us to explore the pursuit of balance and purity that drives Maillol’s practice and finds a contemporary echo in Danielle Orchard’s compositions.
Exhibition view / Courtesy of Ville de Perpignan, Musée d’art Hyacinthe Rigaud / Succession Picasso 2025 © Photo: P. Marchesan
Maillol, for his part, though critical of Picasso’s modernism, acknowledged his painterly mastery and the intensity of his artistic investigations. In certain works from the Cubist period, he recognized a rare formal power, capable of reaching a “pure beauty,” stripped of any anecdote. The dialogue between the two artists is also evident in form. The treatment of busts, seated figures, and simplified silhouettes are recurring motifs shared by both. The nude in Maillol’s work, marked by stability, finds its counterpoint in Picasso’s figures—off-balance, sometimes dislocated, yet constructed with the same internal rigor. Picasso’s Bathers series, the busts of Marie-Thérèse, or the Vollard Suite can be meaningfully echoed in Maillol’s works such as Méditerranée, La Rivière, or Le Désir.
The very idea for this exhibition finds its roots in an intuition of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who in 1943 conceived a museum project entitled Museum for a Small City. In this modern vision of the museum space, he deliberately brought together Maillol and Picasso—outside of traditional chronologies. A bold association that today inspires a new perspective on these two artists. Another key figure in this encounter is Ambroise Vollard, the dealer they both shared. It was in his gallery that Maillol and Picasso met for the first time, as captured in a famous photograph by Brassaï taken in Vollard’s private mansion. The dealer would go on to publish Maillol’s sculptures, such as Leda, and support Picasso from his early career through exhibitions and publications.
Exhibition view / Courtesy of Ville de Perpignan, Musée d’art Hyacinthe Rigaud / Succession Picasso 2025 © Photo: P. Marchesan
Exhibition view / Courtesy of Ville de Perpignan, Musée d’art Hyacinthe Rigaud / Succession Picasso 2025 © Photo: P. Marchesan
Beyond the face-to-face between two major figures of the 20th century, this exhibition invites us to reconsider the place of sculpture in the history of modern art. By confronting Maillol and Picasso, it raises the question of what it means to “challenge the classical ideal” today. Their works continue to pose relevant questions about the representation of the body, the tension between abstraction and figuration, and the role of form in expressing a world in flux. At a time when contemporary sculpture is exploring new materials and spatial relationships, this return to matter, volume, and gesture offers a valuable sense of perspective.
Maillol defined his work as a quest for the essential: “I invent nothing, no more than the apple tree can claim to have invented its apples.” In his sculptures, the purity of line and the balance of volumes express a timeless vision of the human figure. For her part, Danielle Orchard approaches painting with a sculptor’s sensibility, layering thin coats of oil paint to model her figures. She explains: “I’m interested in the way Maillol draws from Antiquity, and how his respect for abstraction resonates with my own reflections on painting.” This exhibition highlights an artistic lineage in which painting and sculpture respond to one another, emphasizing the continuity of a vision of the female body across time. These emblematic works invite us to explore the pursuit of balance and purity that drives Maillol’s practice and finds a contemporary echo in Danielle Orchard’s compositions.
Exhibition view / Courtesy of Ville de Perpignan, Musée d’art Hyacinthe Rigaud / Succession Picasso 2025 © Photo: P. Marchesan The Hyacinthe Rigaud Museum of Art in Perpignan is presenting the exhibition Maillol / Picasso. Challenging the Classical Ideal from June 28 to December 31, 2025. Bringing together for the first time the works of Aristide Maillol and Pablo Picasso, this exhibition highlights their dialogue on form, the human body, and their shared Mediterranean heritage. Both deeply connected to Catalonia, Maillol and Picasso are brought together here through 110 works — sculptures, drawings, paintings, and prints — organized into six thematic sections.
Everything seems to set Aristide Maillol and Pablo Picasso in opposition: two generations, two approaches, two visual languages. And yet, their confrontation reveals deep resonances. Both artists share a Mediterranean culture, a fascination with the female body, and a strong connection to Catalonia. Maillol pursued an idea of beauty rooted in balance and permanence. His work, often described as “classical,” seeks a universal form, free of pathos, sculpted in the southern light. Picasso, by contrast, moved through styles, deconstructed the figure, and explored the violence of desire, collapse, and chaos. But it is precisely in these contrasts that a fertile dialogue emerges. During his stays in Perpignan in the 1950s, Picasso rediscovered Maillol’s work, particularly Méditerranée, displayed in the town hall square. This encounter reawakened formal memories and inspired major works such as Women by the Sea (1956), in which the serene monumentality of Maillol’s figures reappears, transposed into a late Cubist language.
Maillol defined his work as a quest for the essential: “I invent nothing, no more than the apple tree can claim to have invented its apples.” In his sculptures, the purity of line and the balance of volumes express a timeless vision of the human figure. For her part, Danielle Orchard approaches painting with a sculptor’s sensibility, layering thin coats of oil paint to model her figures. She explains: “I’m interested in the way Maillol draws from Antiquity, and how his respect for abstraction resonates with my own reflections on painting.” This exhibition highlights an artistic lineage in which painting and sculpture respond to one another, emphasizing the continuity of a vision of the female body across time. These emblematic works invite us to explore the pursuit of balance and purity that drives Maillol’s practice and finds a contemporary echo in Danielle Orchard’s compositions.
Exhibition view / Courtesy of Ville de Perpignan, Musée d’art Hyacinthe Rigaud / Succession Picasso 2025 © Photo: P. Marchesan
Maillol, for his part, though critical of Picasso’s modernism, acknowledged his painterly mastery and the intensity of his artistic investigations. In certain works from the Cubist period, he recognized a rare formal power, capable of reaching a “pure beauty,” stripped of any anecdote. The dialogue between the two artists is also evident in form. The treatment of busts, seated figures, and simplified silhouettes are recurring motifs shared by both. The nude in Maillol’s work, marked by stability, finds its counterpoint in Picasso’s figures—off-balance, sometimes dislocated, yet constructed with the same internal rigor. Picasso’s Bathers series, the busts of Marie-Thérèse, or the Vollard Suite can be meaningfully echoed in Maillol’s works such as Méditerranée, La Rivière, or Le Désir.
The very idea for this exhibition finds its roots in an intuition of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who in 1943 conceived a museum project entitled Museum for a Small City. In this modern vision of the museum space, he deliberately brought together Maillol and Picasso—outside of traditional chronologies. A bold association that today inspires a new perspective on these two artists. Another key figure in this encounter is Ambroise Vollard, the dealer they both shared. It was in his gallery that Maillol and Picasso met for the first time, as captured in a famous photograph by Brassaï taken in Vollard’s private mansion. The dealer would go on to publish Maillol’s sculptures, such as Leda, and support Picasso from his early career through exhibitions and publications.
Exhibition view / Courtesy of Ville de Perpignan, Musée d’art Hyacinthe Rigaud / Succession Picasso 2025 © Photo: P. Marchesan
Exhibition view / Courtesy of Ville de Perpignan, Musée d’art Hyacinthe Rigaud / Succession Picasso 2025 © Photo: P. Marchesan
Beyond the face-to-face between two major figures of the 20th century, this exhibition invites us to reconsider the place of sculpture in the history of modern art. By confronting Maillol and Picasso, it raises the question of what it means to “challenge the classical ideal” today. Their works continue to pose relevant questions about the representation of the body, the tension between abstraction and figuration, and the role of form in expressing a world in flux. At a time when contemporary sculpture is exploring new materials and spatial relationships, this return to matter, volume, and gesture offers a valuable sense of perspective.
