Rue du Bac, in Paris’ aristocratic seventh arrondissement, has always been an artistic address. Salonist Madame de Staël once lived at number 97. The American painter Whistler resided, without his mother, at number 110. And number 120 was home to François-René de Chateaubriand, a writer who had a cut of steak named after him. It’s that sort of rue.

If they were alive today, de Staël, Whistler and Chateaubriand would surely frequent Galerie Maeght at number 42. Its double vitrine tells the tale of how a lowly lithographer from the south of France, Aimé Maeght, rose to become one of the most powerful players in the modern art world. Postcards and exhibition posters speak of previous shows by César, Marc Chagall and Alexander Calder. And that’s just the Cs.

The Aimé Maeght le...