Rosalba Carriera

Rosalba Carriera was a Venetian painter who began by painting miniatures on the ivory lids of snuff boxes and went on to make pastel portraits fashionable across Europe. British Grand Tourists, German princes and French collectors sat to her, and on a visit to Paris in 1720 and 1721 she was made a member of the French Royal Academy. Her soft, luminous pastels influenced French Rococo portraiture. She went blind in her last years. The Royal Collection, the Victoria and Albert Museum and several British country houses hold pastels by her.