Hippolyte Lazerges Virgin Mary

Portrait of the Virgin Mary (or Mary Magdalene, given the color of her hair) in an oval at the foot of the cross by Hippolyte Lazerges (1817-1887), a religious painter during the Second Empire. The canvas is framed in a gilded reed with gold leaf and visible stucco beads. The tears of several centimeters are gathered in sections that are fairly easy to retouch. The painting is signed, bears the inscription "offered to Madame Boissière" and dated 1867 in the middle right. Unframed, it measures 65x54 cm. Hippolyte Lazerges, after his birth in Narbonne, spent part of his childhood in Algeria. He returned to Paris in 1838 and studied Fine Arts with David d'Angers and François Bouchot. He devoted himself mainly to religious painting, regularly obtaining government commissions. In 1861, he settled permanently in Algeria for health reasons and specialized in the field of Orientalist painting. He trained Armand Point, a symbolic painter.