Portrait of Laura Bro

This full length portrait is a beautiful but lesser-known portrait from the career of French Romanticist Theodore Gericault.

This charming composition aims for a truly feminine, delicate touch, both in the style of painting as well as the content placed in the composition. The young lady is dressed in an elegant dress with the shoes of a ballerina. A cloth is draped across her chair as she sits in a relaxed pose. Her left hand is symbolically gloved and she stares at the painter with a fairly neutral expression.

The subtlety continues with a small landscape appearing in the background, through a light curtain that is spread across a window. This allows light to creep into the painting, but without saturating the entire scene. Gericault moved from classicism to romanticism across his career which leaves an intriguing oeuvre of variety. He would also impress with drawings and lithographs, underlining his raw natural skills and also the thought and planning that went into each and every painting.

When considering the variety of content across the painter's career, he was an ambitious artist who took in themes such as the single portraits found here, plus horserace scenes, religious depictions and elements of the French military. He achieved all of these themes at a high level and confirmed himself as one of the most skilled artists during this period.