Hero and Leander
1894
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
About the artist
Artist
Aristide Maillol
Aristide Joseph Bonaventure Maillol was a French Catalan sculptor, painter, and printmaker.
See the richer artist page1894
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Hero and Leander is a 1894 by Aristide Maillol, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see two figures tangled in waves—Hero clinging to Leander, who’s already underwater. Maillol packed every inch with tiny lines and shapes, like a tapestry. The story comes from an old Greek myth: lovers separated by water, a storm, and death. Unlike his friend Gauguin, who left empty space, Maillol crammed the scene so full it feels alive. Look up *impasto* next—it’s how paint is slapped on thick, the way Maillol built up these waves.
Maillol executed Hero and Leander just as he was becoming acquainted with Paul Gauguin, whose contemporaneous woodcuts must have influenced this work. However, unlike Gauguin, Maillol filled the entire surface with intricate detail and pattern. Leander lived on the Asian side of the Hellespont, the strait which separates Asia and Europe. His lover, Hero, lived on the opposite shore. Each night Leander swam across the strait to visit Hero, but one evening during a storm he drowned, the waves bearing his body to the European shore. When Hero learned of his death, she cast herself into the sea…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Aristide Joseph Bonaventure Maillol was a French Catalan sculptor, painter, and printmaker.
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