Spring

1908

Journey to Greece with Harry Kessler

His new friend, the German patron Count Harry Kessler, made possible Maillol's dream of seeing the monuments of ancient Greece. Studying the sculptures of the Parthenon and of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, Maillol grew confident in his method: “Our age no longer needs gods. It remains for me to follow nature.”

1910

A commission from Ivan Morozov

In 1910 Maurice Denis introduced Maillol to the Russian collector Ivan Morozov. For the music salon of Morozov's Moscow mansion on Prechistenka, Maillol created four allegorical sculptures — Pomona, Flora, Spring and Summer.

1912

A monument to Cézanne for Aix-en-Provence

In 1912 Cézanne's home town of Aix-en-Provence commissioned a monument to the painter from Maillol, himself called “the Cézanne of sculpture”. He worked on the model, a nude female figure, for more than ten years, but the commissioners rejected it as too plain; after a loud scandal the sculpture was installed in the Tuileries Garden in Paris.