Montmarte - Elisé MACLET (1881-1962)

Lovely little oil on panel

MACLET (1881-1962) was born of a mother who was a laundress and a father who was a gardener.
He learned to draw from the Abbé Deleval, a watercolorist at his leisure. He is part of the painters of the Montmartre school.

Legend has it that the painter Puvis de Chavannes met the Abbé Deleval and the young Maclet in the countryside. The painter was interested in the young man's sketches and advised him to train as a painter. But the father of d'Elisé would have opposed it.

In 1906, Maclet settled in Paris and worked at odd jobs, but continued to paint.

He frequented Montmartre, the Moulin de la Galette and its artists, and sold his works to the regulars.

His oil paintings, painted with a brush or a knife, are of an authentic simplicity. The colors are expressive and warm.
His works, with their naive charm, are present in many museums in France, but also in the United States.