The River

1937

Recognition at the 1937 World's Fair

In 1937 Maillol's work won recognition at the World's Fair and in the new National Museum of Modern Art at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris; that same year he was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour.

1939

Withdraws to Banyuls as war breaks out

At the outbreak of the Second World War Maillol withdrew to his native Banyuls-sur-Mer.

1940–1944

The Nazis seize his works

During the German occupation of France dozens of Maillol's works were seized by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg; the Jeu de Paume database lists thirty of them. His Head of Flora was later found in the hoard of Cornelius Gurlitt, son of Hitler's art dealer.

27 September 1944

The circumstances of his death

By some accounts, the 82-year-old Maillol died in a car accident: on the way home in a thunderstorm, the car in which he was a passenger skidded off the road and rolled over. Others call the accident the official version and say that the sculptor, having had no news of Dina Vierny, whom he believed arrested (she was Jewish), took his own life.

27 de setembro de 1944

Died