The life of the late nineteenth-century
photographer M.B. Parkinson remains somewhat mysterious, but his work is
primarily distinguished by portraits and genre scenes. Parkinson was active in
New York City during the heyday of Pictorialism at the end of the nineteenth
century, and his artistic production was deeply influenced by that stylistic
mode. Characterized by an emphasis on the formal and atmospheric effects of highly
idealized and often dramatically posed subjects or themes, Pictorialism was
first popularized in the 1860s by Henry Peach Robinson and O.G. Rejlander. H.P.
Robinson's influential1869 publication, Pictorial Effect in
Photography, promoted the application of painting's aesthetic standards to
"high art" photography. Paradoxically, the Pictorialist movement sought
recognition for photography as a form equal to and independent of other visual
arts, while also fostering an artificiality based on the imitation of painting.

Parkinson's photogravure, Cupid
Asleep, was accompanied by its counterpart, Cupid Awake. The two images
became extremely popular at the beginning of the twentieth century through
their reproduction and arrival in "half of America's homes." Beginning
in 1908, a company in Ohio reproduced and marketed the pair to Americans
through Woolworth's, Sears, and other stores across the nation. Older images
were also available, but the cupids remained the most popular. The name of the
young model whose face became so familiar was Josephine Anderson.