By Anne Leader
On Monday October 7, 1675, Rosalba Carriera was born. Rosalba went on to become a pastellist and painter and was admitted to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome on 27 September 1705. Women were mostly excluded from professional artistic circles at this time, and her membership as well as her successful career attest to her talent and perseverance. Carriera never married, which may have helped her to foster her career. 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.
Self-Portrait, 1715. Florence: Galleria degli Uffizi.
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.
Air, pastel on card, c. 1744. Dresden, Staatliche Kunstammlungen Dresden; photo credit: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY.
America, ca. 1730. Washington D.C.: National Museum of Women in the Arts: Purchased with funds donated by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay.