Élisée Maclet

Élisée Maclet (1881–1962) was a French impressionist painter.

Emile Elisee Maclet was the son of a gardener who lived in Lyons-en Santerre in Picardy. He was born there in 1881. Since his family was poor, he began to work at an early age as an assistant to his father. Picardy is renowned for its roses, and Maclet used to say that he was born among cabbages and roses. By the mysterious alchemy of genius, the gardener’s son wielded a painter’s brush almost as soon as he swung a pick and hoe. His father was not only a gardener, but also the sexton of the parish church, so the boy inevitably became a choirboy. That brought him to the attention of the local priest, Father Delval, who as well as being the parish priest was also a painter, and often on fine Sundays, when Vespers were over, he and young Maclet set out to sketch and paint along the roads or the banks of streams.

Puvis de Chavannes found the same scenes a source of inspiration, and on an April Sunday in 1892, he saw some the work this twelve-year-old boy was doing beside his clerical mentor. The artist was so impressed that he sought out Maclet's father and asked in to allow the boy to study with him. “My son is a gardener, and he will remain a gardener,” was the father’s reply.

In spite of paternal opposition, Elysee Maclet gave up gardening for art. Going to Montmartre, however, did not mean immediate fame. He painted, of course, but earned his living by varnishing iron bedsteads at first; a few months later he got a job decorating the floats for the gala nights at the Moulin Rouge. He also washed dishes in one restaurant; opened oysters in another; for several months he served as ca cook on aboard a ship sailing from Marseilles to Indochina; and when he finally returned to Paris, he painted dolls in crinolines and exhibited them at the Salon des Humoristes. But in spite of all these occupations, he found time to paint.

When Maclet arrived in Montmartre, much of the country charm of the area still existed and he put it on canvas, even before Utrillo did so. Biographers have rather tented to pass over in silence the services Maclet rendered to Utrillo. Maclet knew practically all the future great painters of his time, Utrillo among them, and it is certain that he aided the star-crossed genius, though his own reluctance to have people write about him may account for the fact that we know of it only through oblique remarks in the records of the time. Maclet painted the “Lapin Agile”, the “Moulin de la Galette”, and the ‘Maison de Mimi Pinson” several years before Utrillo painted them. He painted most often in winter in this period, skillfully suggesting snow by leaving bare white spaces in his canvas or paper. In a short time Maclet won a circle of sincere admirers. The art dealer Dosbourg bought his work, which gave him a fairly reliable source of income and enabled him to devote more time than ever to his painting. From Montmartre he launched out into the suburbs of Paris, painting them with the same indulgent tenderness with which he treated the scenes of Montmartre.

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