Allegory of Painting

1730s

Rosalba Carriera

Artist, Venetian, 1675 - 1757

Shown from the chest up, a young woman with pale, smooth skin and dressed in a light blue gown holds a paint brush and palette in this vertical pastel drawing. The woman’s body is angled to our right. She turns her head back to our left but then looks back off to our right from the corners of her eyes under faint brows. Her wide-set eyes are gray, her nose long and straight, and her delicate pink lips are closed in a slight smile. Her curly, ash-blond hair sweeps back from her forehead to gather in a braid across the crown of her head. Soft, loose tendrils frame her round face, which has touches of ice-blue shadows at the corners of her mouth and eyes. Sky-blue and white flowers with mint-green leaves adorn her hair to our left, and two touches of royal blue near her ear on our right suggests a ribbon. Gleaming white pearl earrings hang from her ears. Her dress is created with filmy layers of arctic blue, taupe, white, and pale pink. The gown has a deep, V-shaped neckline, and a long sleeve is turned back from the wrist we can see. In that hand, she holds the wooden paintbrush at about chest height, and it extends off the right edge of the sheet. In the lower right corner of the composition, the thumb of her other hand hooks through a hole in the palette, which has daubs of pink and white. The corner of a blank easel is visible over her shoulder to our right. The background is mouse gray tinged with the blue of the paper on which it is drawn.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    pastel and red chalk on blue laid paper mounted on canvas (on strainer)

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 44.3 × 34.1 cm (17 7/16 × 13 7/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1939.1.136

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Eugene Kraemer; (his estate sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 5-6 May 1913, no. 1); Prince Giovannelli, Venice; Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955], Florence and Rome; sold 1933 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; gift 1939 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1995

  • The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (only shown in Washington), 1995, 118, 445, no. 43 (repro. p. 118, color)(entry by Margherita Giacometti).

2006

  • The Poetry of Light: Venetian Drawings from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2006.

2019

  • The Touch of Color: Pastels at the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2019 - 2020, unnumbered catalogue.

Bibliography

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 37, no. 247, as Allegory of Painting.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 244, repro. 83.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 239, repro.

  • Levey, Michael. Painting in XVIII Century Venice. Phaidon, London, 1959: 142, 145.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 24.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 17, repro.

1973

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 133, fig. 261.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 56, repro.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:125; 2:pl. 86.

1988

  • Sani, Bernardina. Rosalba Carriera. Allemandi, Turin, 1988: 301, fig. 168.

1994

  • The Glory of Venice. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Museo del Settecento Veneziano - Ca'Rezzonico, Venice; Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, 1994-1995: 118, 445, no. 43.

  • Bailey, Martin. "Where Merchants were Kings." The Antique Collector 65/8 (1994): fig. 3.

1998

  • Lavezzari, Paola. "Il 'bello' tra grafica e pittura: a proposito del pastello." In Per Luigi Grassi, Disegno e Disegni. Anna Forlani Tempesti and Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, eds. Rimini, 1998: 469, 477, fig. 3.

  • Bowron, Edgar Peters. "A Celebration of Eighteenth-Century Ventian Art." In sale catalogue for Theta Charity Antiques Show of Houston, Venice: The Masque of Italy, Sept. 17-20, 1998: 29-31, repro.

1999

  • Minor, Vernon Hyde. Baroque and Rococo Art and Culture. London, 1999: 242, fig. 6.22.

2006

  • Neil Jeffares. Dictionary of Pastellist before 1800. London, 2006: 109.

2007

  • Bernardina Sani. Rosalba Carriera, 1673 - 1757. Turin, 2008, no. 213.

Wikidata ID

Q64629802

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