Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (Saône-et-Loire 1758-1823 Paris)

This small-scale drawing is similar in composition to Constance Mayer's L'heureuse mère exhibited, along with its pendant La mère infortunée at the Salon of 1810 (Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. 6584). Prud'hon often made drawings and oil sketches for paintings that were made by Mayer (his pupil and mistress) to be exhibited at the Salon. Prud'hon's drawing has a more classical flavor than Mayer's painting which exhibits the moralizing influence of her first teacher, Jean-Baptiste Greuze. Prud'hon made similarly small-scale preparatory drawings for his own paintings such as the overdoor decorations of Evening and Night for the Hôtel Lanois in 1796 (J. Guiffrey, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, peintures, pastels et dessins, Paris, 1924, nos. 822-25).