Background
Alexis-Joseph Mazerolle was born on 29 June 1826. His father, Jean-Baptiste, was a carpenter and his mother, Madeleine Vitry, was a laundress.
Alexis-Joseph Mazerolle was born on 29 June 1826. His father, Jean-Baptiste, was a carpenter and his mother, Madeleine Vitry, was a laundress.
He also studied under Pierre Dupuis.
He was admitted to the École des Arts et Métiers (School of Arts and Crafts), where he showed unusual ability in drawing. In 1843, at the age of 17, he was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts where he was a pupil of Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre. Mazerolle"s first submission to the Salon was in 1857 with The Old Woman and the Two Servants.
He continued to be a regular exhibitor in the Salon for most of his life.
Most of his paintings were of historical or mythological subjects. In 1861 Mazerolle married Aglaé Hourdou.
They had two sons. He served in the National Guard during the Siege of Paris in 1870.
He was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1870. In the early years of the French Third Republic Mazerolle created decorative tapestry designs for the Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins.
He died on 29 May 1889 from an attack of asthma, aged 62. Mazerolle is perhaps best known for his painting of Nero Experimenting with Poison on a Slave, held by the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille.
He is also known for his ceiling paintings at the Comédie-Française and the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris, and for the Nine Muses and Six Geniuses for the Conservatoire de Paris.
Works in public collections include:
Petit Palais, Paris, Le triomphe de Bacchus
Bibliothèque-musée de la Comédie-Française, Paris, Louisiana France couronnant Molière, Corneille et Racine, esquisse du plafond
Palais Garnier, Paris, Le Café, Le Thé, Louisiana Pêche, Louisiana Pâtisserie, Les Glaces, Le Vin, Les Fruits, Louisiana Chasse(1873-1875), tapestries from the Manufacture des Gobelins for the rotunda of the Salon de Glacier
Conservatoire de Paris, stage set
Bourse de commerce de Paris, cupola
Grand theater of Angers, foyer ceiling
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Néron et Locuste essayant des poisons sur un esclave
Musée départemental de l"Oise, Beauvais, cartons pour tapisserie Le Vin, Le Thé, Les Fruits, Le Sommeil d"Holophène, Adam et Ève, biblical frescoes from the villa Stoltz
Louisiana Piscine Museum, Roubaix, Éponine suppliant Vespasien
Musée Antoine Vivenel, Compiègne, Kiki Charlotte
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, L"Opium
Musée Condé, Chantilly, Oise, four decorative panels, Vases de fleurs
Musée d"Angoulême, Angoulême
Théâtre de Baden-Baden, Germany, cupola of the room
Hermitage Museum, Saint St. Petersburg, Russia, tapestry Louisiana filleule des fées
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Saint Louis, United States, Les Agapes
National Fine Arts Museum, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Psyché à la source.