By Anne Leader
Pastellist and painter Rosalba Carriera died on 15 April 1757 in Venice. Admitted to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome in 1705, Carriera was an exception to the common exclusion of women from professional artistic circles. Her acceptance to the academy as well as her successful career attest to her talent and perseverance. Carriera never married, which may have helped her to foster her professional endeavors. She is known for miniature portraits painted on ivory, decorative lids for snuff boxes, and larger pastel portraits, including her self-portrait included in the collection of artists’ self-portraits belonging to Grand Duke Cosimo III de’Medici in Florence.
Air, pastel on card, c. 1744. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstammlungen Dresden; photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
Self-Portrait, ca. 1746 pastel on paper. Accademia, Venice
America, ca. 1730. Washington D.C.: National Museum of Women in the Arts: Purchased with funds donated by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay
Young Woman with a Mask, Artgate Fondazione Cariplo
Louis XV of France as a Young Man, pastel on paper. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Gustavus Hamilton, Second Viscount Boyne, in Masquerade Costume, 1730-31. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Purchase, George Delacorte Fund Gift, in memory of George T. Delacorte Jr., and Gwynne Andrews, Victor Wilbour Memorial, and Marquand Funds, 2002.22