Pietro Antonio Rotari

Please note this pastel has not been viewed out of its frame. There appears to be some water damage/staining along the right margin however this is difficult to assess through the glass. There are areas where the medium has been rubbed and there are small losses to the pigment in some places. However, overall the colours remain fresh and strong - the white highlights are extremely crisp and bright.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Pietro Antonio Rotari started his artistic career in his home town of Verona under the tutelage of Antonio Balestra, mainly practising engraving.  Rotari continued to work as an engraver and travelled to Venice, Rome and Naples, perfecting his skills and absorbing the styles and techniques of his fellow artists.  On his return to Verona in 1734 he joined the Accademia Veronese, and it was during this period that he started to develop his interest in portraiture.  Between 1750 and 1756 Rotari travelled again, to Vienna and Dresden, where he painted the portraits of royals and nobles.  His reputation as a portraitist soon caught the attention of the Tsarina Elizaveta Petrovna, who invited him to Russia and appointed him court painter in 1756.  In Russia, Rotari continued to paint members of the court but he also started to make portraits of anonymous Russians, concentrating on their costume and expression.  These portraits, so-called teste di carattere, were predominantly portraits of women, executed mainly in oils with some versions in pastel.

This attractive and beguiling portrait of a young woman is a fine example of one of Rotari’s teste di carattere executed in pastel.  In contrast to conventional portraiture, these character head studies allowed Rotari to produce imaginative and emotional works of art that concentrated less on the accuracy with which the sitter's features were captured, and more on the personification of an emotion or sentiment.  Rotari’s teste di carattere display a range of emotions from pensive and demure to playful and coy.  Here, in the present work, Rotari has captured an air of mystery, as the young woman directs her gaze over her shoulder to something or someone out of the viewer’s sight.  Rotari has accentuated particular features of her attire and jewels by using little strokes of white that highlight and sparkle against the dark background.  

The largest surviving group of Rotari's portraits in oil of this type are in a room of Elizabeth's Palace, Peterhof, outside St. Petersburg, which became known as the 'Gallery of the Graces.’