Woman with Parrot by Eugene Delacroix

The period of 1825-30 was the one in which Delacroix painted the female body with the greatest voluptuous care, and it is tempting to compare this little canvas with several paintings of odalisques, especially the Woman with White Stockings, in the Louvre.

The serene fullness of woman is what is celebrated here, in a warm register which is not that of Sardanapalus. A sensual poetry emanates from this handsome nude posed for by Laura, one of Delacroix's favorite models, a poetry which, however, does not so much vaunt the exotic or the erotic as the plastic qualities of a body whose curves admirably find their place within the canvas, and without excessive severity of composition.

The supple lines of the torso, the legs, the left arm, the languid pose, the firm yet graceful line of the face, the modeling in shadow and light of that privileged object, the nude body, should not make us overlook the beautiful draperies surrounding it, nor the subtlety of the colors.