Van Maële was born in the commune of Boulogne sur Seine, once an important industrial town, near Paris, France, to Flemish[1] mother Virginie Mathilde Jeanne van Maële and French father Louis Alfred Martin (himself an engraver and later a teacher at the Beaux-Arts school in Geneva).

Van Maële's career is said to have begun in earnest with his illustrations for H. G. Wells in Les Premiers Hommes dans la Lune (or The First Men in the Moon), published by Félix Juven [fr] in 1901.

The title inspired 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, and occasionally thereafter, van Maële worked as an illustrator for the Félix Juven's French translations of the Sherlock Holmes series.