The Musée de Picardie in Amiens is hosting a major retrospective exhibition dedicated to Albert Maignan (1845-1908), a highly accomplished decorator of several Parisian buildings, including the magnificent Le Train Bleu restaurant at Lyon Station. This comprehensive exhibition showcases the extensive career of one of the Belle Époque's most characteristic artists.
The Amiens museum houses several of Maignan's famous large-format 19th-century works, notably "Les Voix du Tocsin" (The Voices of the Tocsin Bell), a monumental allegory measuring nearly 16 by 16 feet. This powerful painting depicts a people of bold spirits ringing the enormous bells of a martyred cathedral amid the smoke of Strasbourg being bombarded by the Prussians in 1870. The muscular, swirling figures preserve the lessons of Michelangelo, demonstrating Maignan's mastery of classical techniques.
Maignan was truly a prolific artist, earning multiple awards including a gold medal at the 1889 Universal Exhibition, which celebrated the centenary of the French Revolution and featured the newly constructed Eiffel Tower. The Picardie institution, which conserves Maignan's studio collection as well as its rich archaeological and medieval collections, has dedicated this season's major retrospective to showcase all facets of his successful career.
The exhibition spans multiple spaces throughout the museum, flowing through red salon spaces, yellow and pink rooms on the first floor, as well as the ground floor and basement levels. A total of 395 works are presented, including both preparatory studies and finished paintings. Remarkably, 270 pieces emerge from storage reserves, meaning visitors will discover many previously unseen works.
Having effectively navigated the official circuits of public commissions, Maignan left his vibrant colors throughout Paris. At the Le Train Bleu restaurant in Lyon Station, he created the ceiling allegory of Burgundy and wine. On one wall, he painted a view of the Orange theater with notable figures from his era seated in the audience, including himself, his wife, Sarah Bernhardt, Réjane, and Edmond Rostand.
At the Opéra-Comique foyer, Maignan mixed various operetta characters on the back wall, while flying figures representing the "dance of notes" populate the ceiling in an open sky reminiscent of the great Baroque tradition. Throughout the capital, he also designed tapestries for the commercial court and the Senate, worked on the Letters Salon of the City Hall, and created stained glass windows for Notre-Dame-de-Consolation in the 8th arrondissement. Since this monument was erected on the ashes of the Bazar de la Charité in memory of the tragedy's victims, Maignan depicted the souls of the victims ascending to paradise. Simultaneously, at Saint-Philippe-du-Roule, he painted rows of saints.
Pierre Stépanoff, the museum director and co-curator with specialist Véronique Alemany, has also chosen to display the finest examples of Maignan's history painting. His "Departure of the Norman Fleet for the Conquest of England" demonstrates impeccable scholarship and merits careful examination, despite its epic film-like overall effect. His "Napoleon and Marie Louise Crossing the Grand Gallery of the Louvre on Their Wedding Day, April 2, 1810" and "Saint Louis Consoling a Leper" possess the charm of Sacha Guitry's costume films.
Behind this chronicler of France's great moments, beneath this painter pejoratively labeled as "pompier," one can also discern a sage meditating on the inconstancy of power and the difficult exercises of justice and compassion. This is evident in his "Homage to Clovis II," a portrait of a child slumped on a throne too large for him. Maignan never shied away from moral themes. Painted in 1895, "The Green Muse" warns of absinthe's ravages, and "Fortune Passes," set in the Brongniart Palace, former seat of the stock exchange, denounces financial speculation.
The exhibition reveals even more dimensions of Maignan's work, including various publication projects, posters, and cartoons for unrealized projects, such as his planned cycle for Orléans Cathedral telling the life of Joan of Arc. In his portraits, he captured elegant women in their flowered pergolas or observing seagulls on the Riviera, where he flirted with impressionist language. His "Helen at the Fountain" discussing with a peacock, from a private collection, is genuinely beautiful.
The exhibition also features alternating depictions of peasants, laboring workers, and industrialists from his decorative work for the Saint-Étienne Chamber of Commerce. Landscapes follow, including sketches and studies quickly brushed during travels through regions of France and Italy. These are successfully hung edge-to-edge, their collective mass both impressive and seductive. Maignan also captured Andalusia, Holland, and the newly opened Suez Canal in his travels.
Naturally, he regularly copied the masters, particularly those of the Sistine Chapel, which formed the foundation for any academic artist, along with multiplying nude studies. More original are his still lifes, studies of flowers, and marine backgrounds featuring algae, anemones, red mullet, and jellyfish. In summary, this art, though dated, is not without interest. It contains a certain dose of modernity and is not exempt from self-mockery despite its grandeur. Maignan aptly described himself as an "original old-fashioned artist" – he had accurately assessed himself.
The exhibition runs until January 4 at the Musée de Picardie in Amiens, then moves to the Musée de Tessé in Le Mans from April 11 to September 27, 2026. A comprehensive catalog is available from Invenit publishing, featuring 400 pages and priced at 39 euros.
