Ninth Eclogue: Galatea in the Water (Galatee se jouant dans les eaux) Possibly 1926

Aristide Maillol made this print, Ninth Eclogue: Galatea in the Water, with a woodcut in orange ink. It's a scene with two figures reclining in water, perhaps a river or a pond, with reeds or tall grass standing densely behind them. The whole scene is enclosed within a box, so it feels almost like a stage set. I love the confident lines that define the figures and the water. You can almost feel Maillol carving into the wood, figuring out which lines to emphasize to create a sense of form and depth. I imagine him thinking about classical forms, but also just enjoying the physicality of cutting into the wood, letting the material guide him. There’s an interesting relationship here between representation and abstraction, between the classical subject and the modern sensibility. Maillol’s interest in the female form connects him to artists like Renoir and Degas. They're all wrestling with similar ideas about beauty, nature, and the human body. And it's like they're having a conversation across time, each one adding their own voice to the mix.