Rosalba Carriera

Rosalba Carriera (1673–1757) was a Venetian Rococo painter who began with portrait miniatures and then made her name with pastel portraits, a medium she popularized across eighteenth-century Europe. She painted miniatures for snuff-box lids and was among the first to use ivory rather than vellum for them.

Grand Tour travellers across Europe sought her work. In 1704 Rome's Accademia di San Luca made her a member. From 1720 to 1721 she worked in Paris, winning election to the Académie royale, and in 1730 she went to Vienna, where Charles VI collected over 150 of her pastels. She died blind in Venice.