THÉODORE-PIERRE-NICOLAS MAILLOT (1826-1888)

A GENTLEMAN AT HIS WIGMAKER'S
Signed & dated l.r. T Maillot / 1861
Oil on panel
51.5 x 64 cm
 
Provenance:
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, New York, 13 November 1972, lot 46;
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 4 May, 1973, lot 7;
H.R. Cresner, London;
His sale, Sotheby's, London, 19 April, 1978, lot 151 (sold for 900 gns.);
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, Paris, 25.06.2008, Lot 41;
Private collection, France

Literature:
E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, vol. VII, 1976 edition, p.76 
 
 
Théodore Maillot was born in Paris, and entered the city’s Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1843, where he studied under François-Édouard Picot and Michel Martin Drolling. He won  second place in the Prix de Rome of 1850, and would eventually win first place in 1854 with his Abraham washing the feet of the three Angels, now in the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. He began contributing to the Salon from 1852 onwards and did so until 1876, sending variously portraits, history paintings and religious scenes. He was awarded a medal at the Salon of 1867, and had the Légion d'honneur bestowed upon him in 1870. 
 
Maillot’s paintings were often inspired by Christian subjects, and throughout his career he was commissioned to paint religious scenes as part of grand decorative schemes across France, including at the Cathedral in Amiens, Notre-Dame de Paris, the Pantheon, Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, and the church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Belleville. Maillot also taught at least two pupils during his time in Paris, Alexandre-Claude-Louis Lavalley (1862-1927) and Georges Roussel (1860-1928).