HCR diary 8.10.1831 "dinner at Aders, but Laurent the painter and a Mr Corbould were there so we had not much conversation"
13.10.1831 "Laurent who is cleaning A's pictures is in raptures at their excellence"
There were a number of French painters at the time called Laurent or Laurens, none of them is said in the art dictionaries to have visited England. Jean Francois Laurent born Brussels 1773 was probably the most likely, as he was said in Benezit to have been a painter and art restorer. Joseph Bonaventure Laurens 1801-1890 made extensive travels in Europe and was a writer and musician as well as painter, having been friends with Mendelssohn and Schumann and thereby linked to the Aders' German friends. There were also Jean Antoine Laurent 1763-1832 a miniature and porcelain painter, Victor Auguste Laurent born 1800 who committed suicide in 1858, Francois Sebastien Laurent 1776-1845 and Pierre Louis Henri Laurent 1779-1844 an engraver. They all came from different towns so were probably all from different families