Until she gave her full name, Rosalba Giovanna Carriera, she was a Venetian portrait painter and miniaturist who helped pioneer the Rococo style in France and Italy. Her pastels have made her a household name.

The fall of the lace industry may have inspired Carriera to switch to creating snuffboxes for the tourist market, as has been theorized by some researchers. Whatever sparked Carriera's interest in art, she initially gained recognition for her small portraits on snuffboxes. To create miniatures, she pioneered the use of ivory instead of vellum. When Carriera was 25 years old, she had already been granted special membership in the Academy of St. Luke in Rome in recognition of the quality of her miniatures.

Her work reflected the sophistication of her day. She received commissions to paint portraits from several well-known visitors to Venice. Pierre Crozat, a collector and banker urged her to visit Paris. She moved there in March 1720 with her family, where she quickly rose to fame and became an object of adoration in the French capital. In 1720, she was accepted into the French Royal Academy, and the following year, she moved back to Venice, where she lived on the Grand Canal. In 1730, she left Venice once again to spend six months working in Vienna, where she gained the patronage of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and became a new student in the form of the empress. Carriera lost his eyesight sometime around 1750.

Rosalba Carriera is the first artist whose pastels have earned her widespread recognition and acclaim on a global scale.  Her pastels shine with vivid colors, silky sheen, and meticulous attention to detail.

In the 16th century, artists like Jacopo Bassano and Federico Barocci popularized the use of pastels in northern Italy. Hans Holbein the Younger of Germany and the Clouet brothers of France all painted portraits in pastel at about the same time. At its height in the 18th century, the medium was primarily utilized for portraiture when it enjoyed its incredible popularity. Pastels were mastered by many artists, including the Italian Rosalba Carriera, the Frenchmen Jean-Baptiste Chardin, François Boucher, Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, and Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, the Swissman Jean-Étienne Liotard, and the German Anton Raphael Mengs. The French artist Edgar Degas is primarily credited with reviving and revitalizing pastels in the last third of the nineteenth century; since then, many other artists, including Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau, Édouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, Mary Cassatt (an American expatriate), Joan Miró, and Paul Klee, have used them extensively in their work (Swiss).

Many people would be affected by Carriera's art. In 1720, she painted a portrait of King Louis XV that marked the last step away from the traditional royal manner. It was a departure from the imposing to the aesthetically pleasing, with broad applicability across cultures. By gluing colored chalk onto sticks, she shook up the technological world and paved the way for many new, ready-made hues. Thus, the accessibility and utility of pastels were increased. 

Although Maurice Quai, a student of neoclassicist Jacques-Louis David, pejoratively labeled the style "The Rococo," Carriera was instrumental in popularizing it in France and England, where King George III was a significant collector of her art.

Carriera is "typically viewed as an exception, a rare as a woman artist" and is mainly forgotten despite her fame and contribution to a well-established style. Carriera's name and influence were forgotten when the Rococo style fell out of favor, which had much to do with gender. An example sentence: [reference required]

Carriera wasn't limited to portraiture because of her occupation; she painted various subjects. The Four Seasons, The Four Elements, and The Four Continents are only a few of the allegorical works she produced. Women who were both gorgeous and scantily clad would often serve as stand-ins for the allegory's central theme. 

Most paintings Rosalba Carriera did are about Portrait, and other subjects.

Most of the artist's works that can be seen by the public today are now kept in museums like Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister - Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, The State Hermitage Museum - St Petersburg, Galleria dell Accademia - Venice, and others.

Famous Rosalba Carriera period artists include Carle van Loo (French, 1705 -1765), William Hogarth (British, 1697 -1764), Canaletto (Italian, 1697 -1768), Giovanni Paolo Panini (Italian, 1691 -1765), Charles-Antoine Coypel IV (French, 1694 -1752), Antoine Pesne (French, 1683 -1757), Corrado Giaquinto (Italian, 1703 -1766), Jean-Baptiste Oudry (French, 1686 -1755), Jean-Marc Nattier (French, 1685 -1766), Alessandro Magnasco (Italian, 1667 -1749), Sebastiano Conca (Italian, 1680 -1764), and others.

Get inspired by the most famous paintings of Rosalba Carriera. Pick your favorite, and one of our talented artists will make a copy just like the original, making it a unique gift or piece of art for your home. If you can't find a specific Rosalba Carriera, contact us for a price quote.