Maximilien Mayeur was an adept, Salon-exhibited, French painter and etcher of landscapes.
Born in Paris, Mayeur was an understated artist with a deep affection for the natural world. He conducted his work with humility, without seeking peer validation, and as such, he’s relatively unknown, despite exhibiting at the Salon for 20 years. His talents are unsung.
According to the archives, he initially trained under ‘Véron’, which is possibly the landscape painter Alexandre René Véron (1826-1897) who worked extensively in the Forest of Fontainebleau. This was followed by a spell studying with Edmond Charles Joseph Yon (1836-1907) and Henri Saintin (1846-1899).
Saintin was from Ivry-sur-Seine, outside Paris, and the two became close friends, undertaking numerous study trips, including to Brittany in the northwest. One can imagine the pair pitching easels and tackling the same view, comparing notes, before heading to a nearby auberge. It’s likely they worked predominantly ‘en plein air’ and their works are reminiscent of the earlier ‘Barbizon School’ painters, such as Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867).
In 1863, Mayeur debuted at the Paris Salon, where he would continue to show works for the rest of his relatively short life. He married Adélaïde Catherine Marguerite Amie in 1872 and continued to tour with Henri Saintin until his last. L'Artiste described him as a “gentle dreamer of morning mists and vaporous evenings”.
He’s represented at the British Museum.
Exhibited
Paris Salon.
Public Collections
British Museum.
Timeline
1840 (22 May)
Born in Paris, France, to Jean Baptiste Victor Mayeur and Julie Constance Mayeur (nee Guillaume).
Trained under the landscape painter, Edmond Charles Joseph Yon (1836-1907).
Trained under Henri Saintin (1846-1899).
Trained under ‘Véron’. Possibly the landscape painter Alexandre René Véron (1826-1897) who worked extensively in the Forest of Fontainebleau.
1863
Debuted at the Paris Salon where he exhibited for the next 20 years.
1870
Probably served in the Franco-Prussian War.
1872
Married Adélaïde Catherine Marguerite Amiel in Paris.
Undertook tours of Brittany with Henri Saintin and the etcher, Albert Philippon.
1899
Died in Paris.
Obituaries
“The landscape painter Mayeur, who died recently at the age of forty-nine, had exhibited at almost all the successive Salons since 1868. He was first a pupil of Véron, then of Henri Saintin, the gentle dreamer of morning mists and vaporous evenings; through contact with the latter, his talent was refined and softened, he acquired a very real stamp of sincerity and poetry, and there is no doubt that the last works of Max Mayeur ensured his name a well-deserved posthumous notoriety. Very loyal and very independent in character, he rose up quite violently against what he called ‘Art demande’, seeking in the practice of painting only the satisfaction of his ideal, the distinction of colour and the faithful translation of his vision as an artist.
Here is a list of his most important works: Morning in Chaville, Mill of the Abbey of Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme, Porte de Nevers in Saint-Valéry, Souvenir of Biarritz, View Taken in Chaville, The Banks of the Seine in Seurre, A Path in Brittany, Les Marceaudières (Seine-et-Oise), The Moor in Sainte-Julienne, A Stream in Brittany. Entrance to the Village of Kermarec, Bend of the Seine in Aisey-le-Duc, A Stream in Plurieu (Brittany), A Summer Afternoon in Picherel (Côtes-du-Nord).
Among the many etchings exhibited by Mr. Max Mayeur, we will mention: A Sale in the Forest of Compiègne, A Street in Pontoise, The Market Street in Seurre, The Calvary of Erquy, Banks of the Coēsson, The Moor at Sainte-Julienne, The Gate of Montfort, after Henri Saintin, and Mouth of the Hunaudays.
In the company of Henri Saintin and the etcher Albert Philippon, Max Mayeur had been touring the picturesque sites of Brittany for several years; he had brought back from his last trip some remarkable studies, including views of the old manor of Châteaubriant; from which he had started a large canvas, left unfinished.
To comply with the artist's last wishes, who had always expressed his horror at the slow decomposition of the tomb, his remains were cremated at Père-Lachaise.”
L'Artiste (1890)
“The painter Max Mayeur died of pulmonary congestion in his forty-ninth year in Paris. He was a student of the landscape painters Véron and Yon and had exhibited every year at the Salon for twenty years. His works include: Souvenir d'Italie; Un Dunier en Bretagne (1879); Entrée du Village de Kermorec, en Bretagne (1885); Tournant de la Seine à Aiseyle-Duc (Côte-d'Or, 1887). The mark of his talent was sincerity, a robust and honest sincerity. Very proud and very modest, Mayeur instinctively had an invincible repugnance for anything that resembled advertising. There was, in fact, in this delicate and serious artist, a man with a strongly tempered soul, a citizen with a lofty and resolute heart. During the war, he had done his duty in the first rank, and he had always served the Republican party with a loyalty all the more sure because it was less ostentatious in manifesting itself. Max Mayeur died in the prime of life, leaving unanimous regrets in the hearts of those who knew him.”
Courrier de l'art (1890)