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| Charles-Marin de La Haye des Fossés, fermier général du roi, 1773. |
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Portrait of a lady, 1783.
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| Prince Frederick Adolph of Sweden, Duke of Ostrogothia, 1770. |
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| Marie-Françoise Filleul, marquise de Marigny, 1767. |
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| Princess Natalia Petrovna Golitsyna, née Chernysheva, 1777. |
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| Madame Henri-Pierre Goüin, née Anne-Marie-Renée Le Roux de Broons, 1787. |
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| Jean-Baptiste-Eugénie Dumangin (or Du Mangin), 1789. |
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Portrait of a lady, 1769.
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| Princess Elżbieta "Izabela" Dorota Czartoryska, née Fleming 1774. |
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| Double portrait of Roslin and his wife, pastel artist Marie-Suzanne Giroust, 1767. |
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| Artist Anne Vallayer-Coster, 1784. |
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| Double portrait, 1754. The identity of the couple is unknown; one possibility is the architect Jean-Rodolphe Perronet and his wife. |
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| Portrait of a lady presumed to be mademoiselle de Fontenay, 1784. |
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| Madame de Merval, née Marie-Anne-Eléonore la Planquois, 1769. |
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| Georges-Marye de Merval, 1769. |
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| Marie-Anne-Eléonore la Planquois and Georges-Marye de Merval, 1769. |
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| Jacques-François Begouën and Jeanne Begouën, née Mahieu, 1781. |
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| Jeanne Begouën, née Mahieu, 1781. |
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| Marie-Suzanne Giroust, wife of the artist, 1770. |
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| Self-portrait, 1790. The portrait on the easel is of King Gustav III of Sweden. |
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| Portrait of a lady said to be mademoiselle Bourgevin de Linas, as a Vestal Virgin, 1756. |
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| Marie-Emilie Cuivilliers, née Boucher, 1779. |
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| Tsarevich Paul Petrovich, later Paul I of Russia, 1777. |
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| Tsarevna Natalia Alexeievna, née Princess Wilhelmina Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt, 1776. She was the first wife of Paul I (above). (Two images.) |
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| One of my favorite Roslin portraits; it's also one of the most poignant. The Tsarevna is clearly pregnant here; she would die in childbirth only months later. |
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| Lovisa Ulrika of Prussia, Dowager Queen of Sweden, 1775. |
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| Alexandrine-Elisabeth Roslin, the artist's daughter, 1787. The painting looks to have either been left unfinished or to have been damaged. |
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| Marie Romain Hamelin, 1781. |
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Portrait of a lady, 1780.
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| Reichsgräfin von Fries, née Gräfin Anna d'Escherny, circa 1770s. Unlike the other works here, this portrait was done in pastel. |
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| Madame Martin-Pierre Foäche, née Louise Chaussé, 1779. (Sister-in-law of below.) |
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| Pierre-Stanislas Foäche, 1771. |
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| Madame Pierre-Stanislas Foäche, née Rose-Henriette-Agathe de Mondion, 1786. (Wife of above.) |
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| Portrait of a lady, called the marquise de Vaxen, 1778. |
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| Portrait of a lady, called Mademoiselle de Bionville, 1780. |
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Portrait of a man, 1764.
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| Hedvig Elisabet Charlotta, Duchess of Södermanland, future Queen of Sweden and Norway, née Hedwig Elisabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp, 1775. |
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King Louis XVI wearing the Ordre du Saint-Esprit, 1782. In the background is a quite unflattering portrait bust of his wife, Marie Antoinette.
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| Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen, née Archduchess Maria Christina Johanna Josefa Antonia of Austria, 1778. (She was an older sister of Marie Antoinette.) |
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| Comtesse de Bavière-Grosberg, 1780. |
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| Prince Vladimir Borisovich Golitsyn, 1762. |
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| Zoie Ghika, a Moldavian princess, 1777. |
Roslin is one of my absolute favorite painters. And I've shared his work many times on this blog. (In fact, please forgive me, but several of the paintings I've featured here have been included in previous posts; they were just too beautiful to leave out!) His best portraits show at least something beyond the elegant façade his subjects display. And in all his work his attention to detail, the precision in describing each bit of embroidery or lace or flower or ribbon, the way the light plays along each texture, is something I find very exciting. (And it's also something that makes me quite jealous.) His palette is exquisite and these portraits are an invaluable history lesson in the fashions of the second half of the eighteenth century..
When preparing a post, I spend a lot of time - a lot! - looking online for the best quality images of sufficient size to include. And I also spend far too much time in Photoshop trying to improve those images that are not quite good enough or big enough, but that are all that's available of a certain work I really want to share. Occasionally, though, I have to admit defeat. Hence this last portrait. There were no better, no larger examples to be had. But I still had to include this fine fellow, with his elven smile and his delicious pink satin suit.
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Portrait of a young man, circa 1780.
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They almost seem modern in the way they seem to capture the personality of the sitter. So marvelous!
ReplyDeleteYou're so very correct in your appreciation of his skills. His ability to paint the textures, drape and sheen of fabrics is a rare talent. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI have seen that double portrait (the one with the architectural model) identified as Madame du Pompadour and her brother in old books. Fascinating how scholarship can overturn old, romantic identifications.
ReplyDeleteI've so often seen it identified likewise. It's such a wonderful painting, full of exquisite detail; unfortunate that it isn't the siblings as was once thought. The woman's portrait is fairly generalized, as are so many of the marquise, so it would be easy enough to go along with the old identification in this case. But there are sufficient portraits of the marquis de Marigny, consistent in likeness, which finally must have made it just too obvious that the gentleman here was not him. Ça c'est dommage!
DeleteHello Stephen! We are very much alike regarding portrait painters. I admire Alexander Roslin immensely, so much so that nearly six months ago I started working on a blog dedicated to him and his marvellous paintings. I am sure you are aware that the imbecile of Diderot disliked him and attacked him consistently in his famous reviews of the Salons. Roslin was in a class of his own; the only artists who could rival him in the extremely difficult art of depicting fabrics and textures with astonishing skill were his contemporaries Pompeo Batoni and Anton Raphael Mengs. I will let you know when the blog is ready. Regards. Claudio
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered why Roslin isn't better remembered, more written about; I - wasn't - aware of Diderot's enmity, but perhaps we'll lay the blame at his feet for that relative neglect. ; )
DeleteWhile I very much admire Batoni and Mengs - especially the former, and his "Grand Tour" English gentlemen - I do think Roslin is far superior in his handling of fabrics, etc.; such vivid precision!
The main reason Roslin is not well known is, as I wrote in my blog, that he spent his whole life working in France, therefore the only sources and works about him are printed in either French or Swedish; if we add to this the stupid attitude of most English-speaking historians and researchers who cannot be bothered to learn another language assuming that everything worth knowing has been translated/printed in English, then we can easily understand why Roslin, and many other brilliant painters, are unknown to the English-speaking world. Regarding Batoni and Mengs, I agree with you, Roslin was a cut above the rest. Regards
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