Background
Rosalba Carriera was born on January 12, 1673 in Venice, Italy. Her family was from the lower-middle-class.
Rosalba Carriera was born on January 12, 1673 in Venice, Italy. Her family was from the lower-middle-class.
Rosalba was most likely self-taught. There is much speculation surrounding her education in art. It is said that the French painter Jean Steve encouraged her to make miniatures on ivory to decorate the lids of snuffboxes. Some also claim that she received initial instruction in oil technique from the Venetian painter Giuseppe Diamantini.
As a child Rosalba began her artistic career by making lace-patterns for her mother, who was engaged in that trade. With the popularity of snuff-taking, she began painting miniatures for the lids of snuff-boxes, and was the first painter to use ivory for this purpose. Gradually this developed into portrait-painting, for which she pioneered the exclusive use of pastel. Prominent foreign visitors to Venice, such as the young sons of nobility and diplomats clamored to be painted by her. The portraits of her early period include those of Maximilian II of Bavaria, Frederick IV of Denmark, the twelve most beautiful Venetian court ladies, the Artist and her Sister Naneta and, August the Strong of Saxony, who acquired a large collection of her pastels.
By 1721, during her first trip abroad to Paris, her portraits were in great demand. While in Paris, as a guest of the art collector, Pierre Crozat, she painted the artist Watteau, all the royalty and nobility from the King and Regent, and was elected a member of the French Academy by acclamation. Rosalba's diary of these 18 months in Paris was later published in 1793. She returned to Venice in 1721, visited Modena, Parma, and Vienna, and was received with much enthusiasm by rulers and courts.
In later life, she journeyed to the court of the King of Poland where she took the Queen as her pupil. The king made a huge collection of her works which were later to form the basis of the collection in the Altemeister Gallery in Dresden. In 1705, she was made an 'accademico di merito' by the Roman Accademia di San Luca, a title reserved for non-Roman painters. Her portraits were immensely competent, almost always consisting of a bust length pose, with the body turned slightly away and the head turned to face the viewer. She had a marvelous ability to represent textures and patterns, faithfully re-creating fabrics, gold braid, lace, furs, jewels, hair and skin, and showing off all the sumptuous life-style of her rich and influential patrons. The last years of Carriera's long life were tragic, going blind, but she outlived all her family, spending her last years in the little house in the Dorso-Duro area of Venice where she had lived all her life.
Allegory of Music
Portrait of Gustavus Hamilton, 2nd Viscount Boyne in Masquerade Costume
Portrait of a Young Girl
A Tyrolean Innkeeper
Self-portrait
Autumn
Lady in a Turkish Costume (Felicita Sartori)
Portrait of Caterina Sagredo Barbarigo
Young Cavalier
Self-portrait
A Gentleman in a Gold Patterned Coat and Violet-Brown Cape
Self-portrait Holding a Portrait of Her Sister
Portrait of Louis XV as Dauphin
The Singer Faustina Bordoni with a Musical Score
Self-portrait
Portrait of Antoine Watteau
Elector Clemens Augustus of Cologne
Africa
Portrait of Sister Maria Caterina
Young Girl Holding a Monkey
Young Child of the Le Blond Family
Four Seasons
Crown Prince Friedrich Christian of Saxony
Sir James Gray, Second Baronet
Female Portrait with Mask
Self-portrait as Winter
Winter
Cardinal Melchior de Polignac
A Venetian Lady from the House of Barbarigo (Caterina Sagredo Barbarigo)
Spring
Portrait of the French Consul Jean Le Blond
Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Habsburg
Portrait of Françoise Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Orléans and wife of the Regent of France, as Amphitrite
Sidney Beauclerk
Flora
Summer
Portrait of a Gentleman in Red
Portrait of Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton
Her subjects focused on the everyday activities of women and mythological themes connected with women's lives. Subtly blended colors and an interest in rendering the sitter's inner psychology characterized her work.
