Aimé Maeght was born on 27 April 1906 in Hazebrouck near Dunkirk and died on 5 September 1981 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence near Nice. He was a French art dealer, collector, lithographer and publisher who had founded the Galerie Maeght in Paris and Barcelona, and the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in southern France. Maeght made his Paris debut as a major art dealer on the Rue de Teheran in 1945, after World War II. On sale were all the paintings done by Henri Matisse during the war. He also represented Alexander Calder, Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, and Fernand Léger. Much of his success as a dealer was attributed to his wife, Marguerite Maeght, with whom he established the Fondation Maeght, a privately funded museum devoted to 20th century art. The building was designed by the Catalan architect Josep Lluís Sert and houses more than 12,000 pieces of art and attracts "on average, 200,000 visitors ... every year". Aimé Maeght was also the founder, editor and publisher of the French art magazine Derrière le Miroir, created in 1946 and published uninterruptedly until 1982.
Also see associated entities:
• Maeght Editeur - lithography and art book publishing house
• Galería Maeght - Barcelona gallery.