Alexander Roslin

Alexander Roslin (often spelled Alexandre in French; 15 July 1718 – 5 July 1793) was a Swedish portrait painter who worked in Scania, Bayreuth, Paris, Italy, and St. Petersburg, primarily for members of aristocratic families. He combined insightful psychological portrayal with a skillful representation of fabrics and jewels. In his choice of style and lustrous, shimmering colors Alexander Roslin exemplifies Rococo. He lived in France from 1752 until 1793, a period that spanned most of his career. Rococo artists opted for a more jocular, elegant and ornate style, characterized by lightness, elegance and graceful approach to art and architecture. The painting by Roslin depicting Jeanne Sophie de Vignerot du Plessis, Countess of Egmont Pignatelli, was bought by the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 2006 for US$3 million

Alexander Roslin was born on 15 July 1718, in Malmö, Sweden, the son of naval physician Hans Roslin and Catherine Wertmüller. After showing an unusual talent for drawing and painting, he trained in drawing at Karlskrona under Admiralty Captain Lars Ehrenbill (1697–1747) in order to become a naval draughtsman, and then began to paint miniatures. Stockholm had become an intellectual and artistic center since Queen Christina had established connections with Paris, and Alexander Roslin moved there. At the age of sixteen he became apprenticed to the court painter Georg Engelhard Schröder in Stockholm, studying painting there until 1741 and beginning to paint large portraits in oils.[8] Schröder was influenced by Hyacinthe Rigaud and Nicolas de Largillière. In 1741, Roslin settled in Gothenburg, and the following year moved to Scania, where he remained until 1745 painting portraits[8] and also creating religious paintings for the church at Hasslöv.

In 1745, Roslin left Sweden for Bayreuth, where he had been invited to work for the Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. In 1747, he moved to Italy to study the works of the great masters. While in Italy he portrayed, among others, the family of Philip, Duke of Parma in 1752. In the same year Roslin moved to Paris, at the age of 34, where he settled for the rest of his life. Here, in 1759, he married the pastel painter Marie-Suzanne Giroust (1734–1772). The couple had three sons and three daughters. In 1768 Roslin painted her dressed in Bolognese fashion, Lady with Veil, a portrait that the art critic, writer and philosopher Denis Diderot judged "très piquante". In 1767 he painted a double portrait of them both; she is depicted working in pastels on a portrait of Henrik Wilhelm Peill, while Roslin points at a gold box he received from Peill as a present. The frame of the painting is inscribed Loin et près (Far away and yet close), showing that the portrait was a token of friendship. This painting was purchased by the Swedish National Museum in 2013.

The Lady with the Veil

Baroness de Neubourg-Cromière (1756)

King Gustav III of Sweden and his Brothers (1771)

Jeanne Sophie de Vignerot du Plessis, Countess of Egmont Pignatelli (1763)

Prince Vladimir Borisovich Golitsyn (1762)

Madame de Pompadour as Diane by Jean-Marc Nattier 1746

Flora or Hebe

Double portrait of Roslin and his wife, 1767

Katarzyna Mniszech by Alexander Roslin 1752

Double portrait of Roslin and his wife, 1767

A portrait of Roslin's wife, Marie Suzanne Giroust-Roslin, 1770

Jean-Marc Nattier Madame Marie Henriette Berthelet de Pleu

Anne Vallayer-Coster, French painter, 1783

John Jennings, Esq. with his Brother and Sister-in-Law (1769)

Jean-François Marmontel, French historian and writer (1767)