4305 - Paul Martin, attributed, Little Cupid

Paul Martin, attributed, Little Cupid A small Cupid depicted from the front, with an arrow drawn and aimed at the viewer; a small, finely executed painting. The painting was reproduced by the Franz Hanfstaengl publishing house, however, this is a smaller version of the painting, probably also painted by Paul Martin; oil on cardboard, late 19th century; in the top left-hand corner, remnants of a monogram with a ‘P’; on the reverse of the frame, an advertising plaque ‘Kunsthandel Franz Dury, Munich, in front of the Rondell’; minimal signs of ageing; beautiful, elaborately decorated gilded stucco frame; inner dimensions 16.5 x 12.5 cm. Artist’s biography: German history and genre painter (1821 in Kaiserslautern to 1901 in Munich), private pupil of Joseph Bernhardt in Munich, attended the Munich Academy from 1842, in Paris from 1846 to 1854, where he studied under Charles Gleyre, exhibited several times at the Paris Salon, back in Munich from 1855, where he was known primarily as a genre and history painter in the tradition of Karl von Piloty; in Munich, he was commissioned to paint the frescoes for the Historical Gallery in the Bavarian National Museum; later, he was known above all for ‘delicately humorous little pictures that are popular and sell well’. Source: Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon Online.