About Martin van Maele
Martin van Maele was a French artist and erotic illustrator who created many erotic works, ranging from absurd drawings and caricatures to violent and disturbing fetishist studies. He also used A. Van Troizem as a pseudonym on occasion. Originally thought to have been born Belgian, recent research has uncovered a little more about Van Maele's life, but still not very much is known.
Born Maurice Martin, his usual pseudonym Martin Van Maele is a concatenation of his parents' names. 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.
Van Maele's career is said to have taken off with his illustrations for H.G. Wells in Les Premiers Hommes dans la Lune (or First Men On The Moon), published by Felix Juven in 1901. Van Maele also illustrated Anatole France's Thais, also published by Charles Carrington, also in 1901. The following year, and occasionally thereafter, Van Maele worked as an illustrator for the Felix Juven's French translations of the Sherlock Holmes series.
For some reason his work is often confused with that of the Dutch artist René Gockinga, another contributor to Charles Carrington's presses. There is, however, no relation between the two artists.
