Rosalba Carriera (b. 1673 – 1757)

The 18th-century Venetian Rococo painter Rosalba Carriera was one of art history’s most successful artists. She was highly regarded for her delicate yet innovative work in pastel portraiture. Said to be largely self-taught, Carriera began her career painting miniatures, mostly of people and allegorical subjects. Such works quickly established her reputation and gained her acceptance into Rome’s prestigious Accademia di San Luca in 1705, at a time when women were mostly excluded from professional artistic circles.

In 1720, Carriera travelled to Paris, where she created portraits of prominent individuals, including the young Louis XV, and then all across Europe, where she continued to amass admirers, including Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, who collected more than one hundred of her pastels.

As the great French connoisseur and collector Pierre-Jean Mariette wrote of Carriera, ‘It must be agreed that this demoiselle has discovered the art of treating this type of painting in a way that no one had before her, which makes the most skilful say that this sort of pastel, with all the strength and truth of colours, preserves a certain freshness and lightness of touch where transparent, which is superior to that of oil painting.’

Carriera’s eyesight began to deteriorate when she reached her 70s and, by 1749, she had become permanently blind, rendering her unable to work. She died in 1757 in Venice, enjoying renown as the artist who helped transform the pastel medium into a serious and highly-admired art form.

Carriera’s portraits are in the collections of The National Gallery in London, The National Gallery of Ireland and The Frick Collection in New York, among other major art establishments.