Idbury Prints: An online gallery of original fine art prints

MARTIN VAN MAELE (French / 1863-1926)

The etcher and draughtsman Martin van Maele was an erotic and satirical artist who worked in a style influenced by the Belgian master Félicien Rops; according to some sources, van Maele was a pupil of Rops, but we are uncertain whether this assertion is sound . Martin van Maele in turn was an influence on a younger Belgian artist, Luc Lafnet, and when van Maele died in 1926 it was Lafnet who completed the project on which he was working, an edition of Les Dialogues de Pietro Aretino. Like Lafnet, Martin van Maele did a great deal of work for publishers of clandestine erotica, although he also undertook less risky commissions, including illustrating Sherlock Holmes. His earliest published drawings date to 1893. For a long time very little was known about Martin van Maele beyond his art (which first came to wide attention in 1970 with the publication of The Satyrical Drawings of Martin van Maele). It is now known that Martin van Maele was a pseudonym, combining his father's surname, Martin, and his mother's maiden name, van Maele; he also occasionally used the name A. van Troizem. The artist's real name was Maurice François Alfred Martin. His father Louis Alfred Martin was himself an engraver, and taught at the École des Beaux-Arts, Geneva. It seems likely that Martin van Maele was taught by his father.