A Portrait-Group of Friends

Born in Germany, Louise Breslau spent her childhood in Switzerland, where she lived recluse in her room due to her chronic asthma. Quickly, she draws to pass the time, until her adolescence, where she began an artistic training in Switzerland before going to Paris. She enters the Académie Julian where her work will be noticed, which allows her to quickly open her workshop and obtain a large number of orders from wealthy clients.

She lives with two artist friends, whom she depicts in "Portrait of Friends" in her company, in a refined style and a certain ability to express the psychology of her figures. In this representation, the three women do not look at each other, one is busy with her sketchbook while the other is pensive, Louise Breslau, from behind, is settling down in front of her easel. The composition and the interplay bring a certain distance between the characters, despite the proximity of their common intimacy. She represents intimate scenes, portraits of the bourgeoisie, artists, friends or children, then during the war, Louise Breslau produced a series of portraits of soldiers called to the front and of nurses, to offer them to their families.

Her work would be praised by the greatest artists of this period, notably Auguste Rodin, who considered her to be his female counterpart and admired her work.