Putto (zugeschrieben)

'Putto (zugeschrieben)' (Putto, attributed), dated to around 1862 and held in the Bavarian State Painting Collections, is attributed to von Marées with some uncertainty — the 'zugeschrieben' indicating that scholars have discussed but not definitively settled the attribution. The putto — the chubby winged child derived from ancient Eros figures and ubiquitous in Renaissance and Baroque decorative painting — was a conventional subject in the academic tradition from which von Marées was emerging in the early 1860s. A putto study would have served as both an academic exercise and a demonstration of capability in handling the infant figure, one of the most technically demanding subjects in the European tradition. The warm modelling of the child's body and the loose, free handling of the wings, if autograph, represent an early example of his capacity for sensitive, small-scale figure study.

The attributed putto shows warm, rounded modelling of the infant figure consistent with the academic tradition and with von Marées's early style. The paint handling is fluid and confident in the figure's flesh tones, with softer treatment of the wings. If autograph, the work demonstrates engagement with the same formal interest in three-dimensional bodily form that characterises his authenticated early works.