In 1881, Aristide Maillol moved to Paris, where he first attended a drawing course at the École des Beaux-Arts as a student of the painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme. In the meantime, he took classes in sculpture at the arts college, before returning to the Academy, where he remained until 1893. Maillol's recognition as a sculptor grew only gradually, forcing him to earn his livelihood with the restoration of stucco work. Success ensued after an exhibition in 1902, in which Ambroise Vollard presented 33 of Maillol’s works. Two years later, he was included in a publication by Julius Meier-Graefe and made the acquaintance of his most important patron, the German art collector Harry Graf Kessler, with whom he traveled on several occasions and executed important commissions.

In 1913, Maillol had his first exhibition abroad, in Rotterdam. This was followed by exhibitions at the Armory Show in New York and later at the Berlin gallery of Alfred Flechtheim, the Kunsthalle Basel, and the Petit Palais in Paris on the occasion of the World Exhibition in Paris. Maillol initially devoted himself to painting, was a member of the Nabis group, and created tapestries. From the mid-1890s on, he created primarily sculptures in plaster, wood, and bronze. The main theme of his sculptural oeuvre is the female body.

Today Maillol's works can be found at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Neue Pinakothek in Munich.