Louis-félix De La Rue (1730-1777) Putti Playing Around A Sculpture, Pen Drawing

Louis-Félix de La Rue (1730-1777) 
Putti playing around a sculpture, a mythological scene
Pen and brown ink on paper 
15.4 x 31 cm
In good  condition
The ancient mount has has a small tear in the lower right, but it doesn't affect the drawing itself.
In a modern frame under glass 28 x 43 cm

Another example of the absolutely original spirit of Louis Felix de la Rue. Although this swarm of putti still evokes the Rococo style, the artist decided to poke fun at it and to contrast the seriousness of the sculpture of the bearded man and the hearth - no doubt intended as a sacrifice - with a swarm of cherubs busy flying and playing.
The subject is obviously mysterious, but it bears the hallmark of this highly original and endearing artist.
At first glance, you can recognise his distinctive style, and his whimsical inspiration.

The inspiration of antiquity, which is the hallmark of the neo-classical style to which de la Rue belongs, becomes under his pen a completely phantasmagorical universe, always with his sense of humour and the tenderness of those little putti that he loved.

Louis-Félix de La Rue was born on October 19, 1730 in Paris, where he died on June 24, 1777. He was a draughtsman and sculptor, older brother of Philibert-Benoît de la Rue.
De La Rue was trained in the studio of the celebrated sculptor Lambert-Sigisbert Adam (1700-1759), where he may have met the young Clodion who, although some years Delarue’s junior, also worked under Adam. He won the prix de Rome in 1750 with a bas relief entitled "Abraham rendant grâces à Dieu de la délivrance de son fils" and became pensionnaire of the École royale des élèves protégés between 1752 and 1754. In this role, De La Rue presented a group entitled Bacchante qui enivre des enfants and four bas-reliefs of the Saisons to the king during an exhibition at Versailles in 1754. Before going to Rome in November 1754, he worked under the direction of Jean-Jacques Bachelier at the Manufacture de Vincennes, where he made several groups of frolicking infants, including two presse-papiers models, referred to as ‘plaques à papiers La Rue’. Upon returning to the Académie de France in Rome, of which Natoire was the then director, he was admitted into the Academy of Saint Luke on 13 September 1760. Subsequently, De La Rue was named Professor in 1762. After 1764, De La Rue disappears from the official record and, tragically, is believed to have been plagued by physical frailty and mental illness.