Page 8 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW SPECIAL ISSUE 4

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Maurice Testard, writes in “L’Art décoratif”, April 1909, an article entitled “P. Mahler –

Décorateur animalier” (animalier decorator).

We discover that Mahler was born in Strasbourg in 1864. After Strasbourg was annexed by
the Germans in 1871, he left with his father who considered himself French to go live in
Verdun sur Meuse, France. It is there that the young Mahler grew up and developed an
insatiable love of Nature and animals, and his keen sense of observation that enabled him

to draw, sculpt, engrave, and paint animals and plants with such excellence later in his
life. Mahler was already drawing animals as a child.

When he arrived in Paris in 1882, he was welcomed by Mr. Bellecroix, himself an artist, at
the magazine “La Chasse Illustrée” (the Illustrated Hunt), one of the major magazines that

Mahler would illustrate. He often visited the Jardin des Plantes, the historical heart of the
French National Museum of Natural history, whose animals he knew well. He studied also
at Les Beaux Arts School, in Jean-Léon Gérôme’s art studio, a famous French orientalist
known for the painstaking preciseness of his paintings. Mahler also studied Anatomy and
with this precious knowledge started illustrating for La Chasse illustrée, Le Chenil (the
Doghouse) which published portraits of various breeds of dogs and finally l’Acclimatation/

Journal des éleveurs, another journal specialized in breeding animals of all kinds. Mahler
was also an avid visitor of dog shows and many a champion had the honor of being drawn
and engraved for posterity by him. These portraits were printed in the albums of the
Société Canine (Canine Society), and the originals given to the owners. They were also
published in other journals.

We already know that Mahler was very prolific, his art covering hundreds of illustrations
in journals, canine portraits, wild animals, but Testard tells us that in addition Mahler also
illustrated posters, numerous books (his masterpiece of dog breeds and species of game
for the Manufacture des Armes et Cycles de StEtienne), catalogue covers, and made vases,
inkwells, paperweights, bronze plaques for dog shows, buttons for hunting jackets,

figurines, etc…always representing animals.

Mahler lived tuned to animals as many of different species shared his residence with him
during his life. He had earlier on dogs, cats, a buzzard, rabbits, tortoises, three Congo

monkeys and an Austrian wolf. Later on he had pigeons, a rooster and a hen, cats and
tamed seagulls, living in harmony within an exuberant garden.

The author concludes “Mahler is not only likeable by his work, the result of a conscientious
and honest labor, but also by his character: because he is a modest man who, well away from
low intrigues, the restless sirens of ambition, lives simply, honestly from his art and for his

art.”