Martin van Maele

~ 1863 - 1926

Maurice François Alfred Martin van Miële was born on 12 octobre 1863 in Boulogne sur Seine. He used the alias Martin van Maele. It could also be written as van Maële and A van Troizem. He illustrated for Authors such as Charles Carrington and Jean Fort.

He worked in Brussels and Paris. His best known work consists of an illustrated edition of Paul Verlaine's poems. It 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. The book is titled Les Premiers Hommes dans la Lune (or The First Men in the Moon). It was published by Felix Juven in 1901. The title later became the classic 1902 sci-fi silent film called Le Voyage Dans La Lune, produced by Georges Méliès. Van Maële also illustrated Anatole France's Thais, published by Charles Carrington, also in 1901. The following year, van Maële started illustrating the Felix Juven's French translations of the Sherlock Holmes series. He began this work and continued it occasionally thereafter.
He is widely renowned and mostly remembered for his erotic illustrations.

Lenchen im Zuchthause ( Nell in Bridewell) was first published in 1840, the English translation in 1900.

Books with bdsm illustrations by van Maele presented in gallery below: