His father, Jean-Baptiste, was a carpenter and his mother, Madeleine Vitry, was a laundress.

In 1843, at the age of 17, he was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts where he was a pupil of Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre.

[4] In the early years of the French Third Republic Mazerolle created decorative tapestry designs for the Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins.

[5] In 1880 President Jules Grévy made him an officer of the Legion of Honour when the new ceiling of the Théâtre Français was inaugurated, for which he received much praise.

[1] Mazerolle is perhaps best known for his painting of Nero Experimenting with Poison on a Slave, held by the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille.