Théophile François Marcel Bra (23 June 1797,

Douai Douai ( , , ; ; ; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord (French department), Nord département in northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe (rive ...

- 1863) was a French Romantic sculptor and exact contemporary of

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( ; ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French people, French Romanticism, Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: ...

. He was deeply involved in the Romantic era through his uncompromising personality and complex spirituality. His fantastical inspiration evokes the universes inhabited by

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, an ...

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

- he was at one and the same time a Bonapartist and an anglophile, a passionate Christian disciple of

Swedenborg Emanuel Swedenborg (; ; born Emanuel Swedberg; (29 January 168829 March 1772) was a Swedish polymath; scientist, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, Christian theologian, philosopher, and mystic. He became best known for his book on the afterlife, ...

and an admirer of Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Life

From a family that had been sculptors for four generations, Bra studied art in Paris. He won second prize in the

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

in 1818 and was made a

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

in 1824 in Douai's "la Parfaite union" lodge. He also belonged to lodges in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

and

between 1825 and 1840. He left his birthplace of Douai 100 boxes and albums of torrential writings, holding 5,000 drawings associated with the texts. Many sheets from this bequest, now kept in Douai's City Library, have been the subject of exhibitions in the United States and France, such as at Balzac's house, the Musée de la Chartreuse at Douai and the Musée de la vie romantique in Paris.

Works

His marble and plaster sculptures are numerous, in Douai's Musée de la Chartreuse, Paris churches and the museums at Versailles,

and

Valenciennes Valenciennes (, also , , ; ; or ; ) is a communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, department, Hauts-de-France, France. It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced ...

, many of them being commissions under the

Bourbon Restoration Bourbon Restoration may refer to: France under the House of Bourbon: * Bourbon Restoration in France (1814, after the French revolution and Napoleonic era, until 1830; interrupted by the Hundred Days in 1815) Spain under the Spanish Bourbons: * Ab ...

and

July Monarchy The July Monarchy (), officially the ''Kingdom of France'' (), was a liberalism, liberal constitutional monarchy in France under , starting on 9 August 1830, after the revolutionary victory of the July Revolution of 1830, and ending 26 Februar ...

. Others are to be seen on the

Église de la Madeleine The Church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine (, ), or less formally, La Madeleine (), is a Catholic parish church on Place de la Madeleine in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It was planned by Louis XV as the focal point of the new Rue Royal, leading t ...

Palais du Louvre The Louvre Palace (, ), often referred to simply as the Louvre, is an iconic French palace located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, occupying a vast expanse of land between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Ger ...

and the

Arc de Triomphe The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, often called simply the Arc de Triomphe, is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly named Plac ...

. *''Allegory of the besieged city of Lille'', on the

Column of the Goddess The Column of the Goddess is the popular name given by the citizens of Lille (France) to the Memorial of the Siege of 1792. The memorial is still in the center of the ''Grand′ Place'' (central square) of Lille, and has been surrounded by a fount ...

in Lille *''Christ on the cross'' and the ''Virgin and Child'', at the église Sainte-Catherine in Lille * Pediment of the

Hôpital-Général de Douai The Hôpital-Général de Douai was set up in 1752 in the French city of Douai Douai ( , , ; ; ; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord (French department), Nord département in northern France. It is a Subprefectu ...

* Bust of

Adolphe Édouard Casimir Joseph Mortier ''Adolphe'' is a classic French novel by Benjamin Constant, first published in 1816. It tells the story of an alienated young man, Adolphe, who falls in love with an older woman, Ellénore, the Polish mistress of the Comte de P***. Their illicit ...

Galerie des Batailles The (; ) is a gallery occupying the first floor of the Aile du Midi of the Palace of Versailles, joining onto the '' grand'' and '' petit appartement de la reine''. long and wide, it is an epigone of the ''Grande Galerie'' of the Louvre and ...

at the

Château de Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines Department of Île-de-France region in France. The palace is owned by the government of F ...

* Bust of Mme Mention, née Emilie Michel, bronze, Musée de la vie romantique, Paris. * Statue of an androgynous angel,

Musée de la Chartreuse de Douai The Musée de la Chartreuse is an art museum in a former Carthusian monastery in Douai, France. It is the 'musée des Beaux-Arts' for the city. Building Built by Jacques d'Abancourt in brick and stone in the Renaissance style, on the site of ...

, which inspired Balzac to create the character of conte Séraphita in one of his 1835 ''Études philosophiques'' in ''

La Comédie humaine (; English: ''The Human Comedy'') is Honoré de Balzac's 1829–48 multi-volume collection of interlinked novels and stories depicting French society in the period of the Restoration (1815–30) and the July Monarchy (1830–48). ''La Com� ...

''. * Bronze statue of François Broussais, 1840, second courtyard of the Military Hospital at

Val-de-Grâce The Val-de-Grâce (; Hôpital d'instruction des armées du Val-de-Grâce or HIA Val-de-Grâce) was a military hospital located at 74 boulevard de Port-Royal in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was closed as a hospital in 2016. History ...

. * One of the bas-reliefs on the base of the Column of the Grande Armée, Wimille - 1840 * Bronze statue from the

in the Place du Général-de-Gaulle, Lille.

Publications

* ''The Drawing speaks'' : Théophile Bra : Works 1826-1855'', Exhibition Catalogue, The Menil Collection, Houston, 1999, with contributions by Jacques de Caso,

Hubert Damisch Hubert Damisch (28 April 1928 – 14 December 2017) was a French philosopher specialised in aesthetics and art history, and professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris from 1975 until 1996. He was born and died ...

, André Bigotte. * Théophile Bra, ''L'Evangile rouge'', edited by Jacques de Caso, Paris, Gallimard, 2000. * ''Sang d'encre - Théophile Bra, un illuminé romantique'', Musée de la Vie romantique, Paris, 2007. Contributions by Jacques de Caso, Hubert Damisch, Pierre-Jacques Lamblin, Daniel Marchesseau, with Françoise Baligand, André Bigotte, Marie-Claude Sabouret. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bra 1797 births 1863 deaths 19th-century French sculptors French male sculptors People from Douai French Freemasons 19th-century French male artists