Daphnis geeft Chloë een appel 1937

Aristide Maillol made this woodcut print, Daphnis gives Chloë an apple, with simple materials: a block of wood, a carving tool, ink and paper. There's something so beautiful about the cleanness of the cut. When he was making this print, Maillol would have been thinking about how to create depth and shadow with just a few simple marks. The stark contrast captures a classical scene with a childlike innocence. I can imagine him carefully carving each line, feeling the resistance of the wood under his hand, figuring out what to leave in and what to take away. It’s a thoughtful dance of intention and intuition. I find myself wondering what he might have been thinking about as he made this artwork. The composition reminds me a little bit of Gauguin, or even Matisse, in its simplicity. They're all in conversation, you know, these artists, across time.