8. Alexis Joseph Mazerolle (French, 1826-1889)

Cupid Stealing Arrows from Sleeping Venus.
oil on canvas, signed lower right, framed.
12" x 7".

2,000/4,000     

This sensuous dozing Venus surrounded by playful putti is the work of Alexis Joseph Mazerolle, a French genre, history, portrait and decorative painter. A student of Dupuis and Gleyre, Mazerolle lived and worked most of his life in Paris although he studied painting abroad in Italy and Holland. He made his debut at the Paris Salon of 1847, and received numerous decorative mural commissions for the Comedie Francais, for the Vaudeville theatre, and for the Paris Opera house. He was a prolific artist, and no doubt one who produced very quickly. His work demonstrates a skillful command of anatomy, for without labored brushwork he was able to capture the voluptuous serpentine pose of the main figure. As an anatomist, Mazerolle might be considered a 19th-century equivalent of Boucher, who particularly excelled at painting the female nude.

Condition: not varnished, paint film is thin in spots and may have been slightly skinned in cleaning.