Two Young Girls c. 1930

Aristide Maillol carved this relief sculpture of two young girls from stone. The work evokes a sense of classical simplicity and harmony. Maillol, born in France in 1861, lived in a period of significant social and artistic change. His artistic development was influenced by the academic traditions of his training and by the avant-garde movements emerging in Paris. We can see that influence in this work, which combines a classicizing aesthetic with a modernist sensibility. It is likely that Maillol was drawing on the visual codes of classical sculpture, which often presented idealized forms as symbols of beauty and virtue. But we can also consider that it may have been a response to the changing roles of women in French society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as women began to enter the public sphere and challenge traditional gender roles. Art history involves the interpretation of images through research into the social and institutional conditions of their creation. It is through this method that art becomes meaningful.