Albert Maignan : un virtuose à la Belle Époque

Exhibition at the Musée de Picardie, Amiens, 28 June 2025 – 4 January 2026,
then at the Musée Tessé, Le Mans, 11 April – 27 September 2026

An artist renowned during his lifetime even beyond our borders, Albert Maignan (1845–1908) won every official award for his paintings presented at the Salon and the Universal Exhibitions. He received commissions to decorate the civil and religious, public and private buildings that were springing up in Paris in the 1900s. Skilled in all media, he designed models for book illustrations, stained glass windows and tapestries. The varied and prolific work of this tireless, sincere and conscientious worker was inspired by his erudition, his love of nature and travel, his imagination, and his personality, nourished by a lifetime of experience. An independent spirit with an engaging and generous personality, he was esteemed both by his students and by the members of the artistic associations in which he was active.

This exhibition catalogue allows this major artist of the Belle Époque to emerge from the obscurity into which he fell after his death. Revealing a seductive singularity, his works transcend the ‘pompier’ style that had previously been assigned to them and are often tinged with naturalism and symbolism, sometimes permeable to Impressionism. Through rich iconography and extensive historical and artistic research, this book reveals the original trajectory of an artist and a man who knew how to combine the soul of a passionate creator with the sensitivity of a poet.