He was born in the commune of Boulogne sur Seine, once an important industrial town, near Paris, France, to Flemish mother Virginie Mathilde Jeanne van Maële and French father Louis Alfred Martin. His pseudonym, Martin van Maële, is a combination of his mother's maiden name and his father's surname. He also sometimes used the pseudonym A. Van Troizem. He married Marie Françoise Genet; the couple had no children. He died on 5 September 1926, aged 62, and was interred in the cemetery of Varennes-Jarcy.
Life and career
He worked at Brussels as well as Paris, and his best known work – consisting among other things of an illustrated edition of Paul Verlaine's poems – was published in small, secretive editions by publisher Charles Carrington. The prints are considered both humoristic and satirical, sometimes cynical. Van Maële's career is said to have really begun with his illustrations for H. G. Wells in Les Premiers Hommes dans la Lune, published by in 1901. The title later became the classic 1902 sci-fisilent film called Le Voyage Dans La Lune, produced by Georges Méliès. Van Maële also illustrated Anatole France'sThais, published by Charles Carrington, also in 1901. The following year, and occasionally thereafter, van Maële worked as an illustrator for the Félix Juven's French translations of the Sherlock Holmes series. He is widely renowned and mostly remembered for his erotic illustrations, two examples of which are on this page.
Collection
The Satyrical Drawings of Martin van Maële.
Drawings
Anatole France, Thaïs, Charles Carrington, Paris, 1901.
Wilhelm Reinhard, La flagellation des femmes en Allemagne, Charles Carrington, Paris, 1901. 20 drawings.
Margaret Anson, Une société de flagellantes. Réminiscences et révélations d’une soubrette de grande maison..., Charles Carrington, Paris, 1902.
Anatole France, The Well of Santa Clara, Charles Carrington, Paris, 1903.
Jean de Villiot, Dix-sept ans : étude sociale, Charles Carrington, Paris, 1905. Drawings.
Apulée, L'Âne d'or, Charles Carrington, Paris, 1905. 21 eaux-fortes. New edition by Jean de Bonnot, Paris, 1991.
Paul Verlaine, La Trilogie érotique : Amies, Femmes, Hombres, Charles Carrington, Bruxelles, 1907. 15 drawings.
Aimé Van Rod, Nos Belles flagellantes, Paris, 1907. 10 drawings.
Jules Michelet, La Sorcière, Jules Chevrel, Paris, 1911. New edition by Jean de Bonnot, 1987.
Edgar Allan Poe, 1919. Drawings attributed to Van Maële.
Claude de Saint-Hieble, L'Instrument des apothécaires, Jean Fort, coll. « Les Amis du bon vieux temps », Paris, 1920.
Edmond Haraucourt, La Légende des sexes, Au Clos Bruneau, Paris, 1921. 12 gravings.
François Béroalde de Verville, Le Moyen de parvenir, Jean Fort, Paris, 1921. 18 coloured drawings and 65 small drawings.
Pierre Fély, Les Princesses de Cythère, chronique libertine de l'histoire., Jean Fort, coll. « Les Amis du bon vieux temps », Paris, 1922.
Charles Sorel, L'Histoire comique de Francion. En laquelle sont découvertes les plus subtiles finesses et trompeuses inventions tant des hommes que des femmes de toutes sortes de conditions et d’âges., Jean Fort, Paris, 1925. 17 drawings and 16 compositions.
Pierre de Jusange, La Comtesse au fouet, Jean Fort, Paris, 1926. 7 drawings.
Docteur Gastien Fowler, Maison des flagellations, Jean Fort, Collection des Orties Blanches, Paris, 1926.
Pierre l'Arétin, Dialogues, Jean Fort, 1927. 66 drawings and 10 drawings. Van Maële died while the drawings were being made, so some are by Luc Lafnet.
Ovide, Les amours ; L'art d'aimer ; Les Héroïdes ; Les remèdes d'amour ; Les cosmétiques, Jean de Bonnot, Paris, 2000.
