Rosalba Carriera (October 7, 1675 – April 15, 1757) was a Venetian Rococo painter.
In her younger years, she specialized in portrait miniatures. She later became known for her pastel work, a medium appealing to Rococo styles for its soft edges and flattering surfaces.
Born in Venice, Rosalba Carriera was a prominent and greatly-admired portrait artist of the Italian Rococo. Her family was from the lower-middle-class in Venice, and as a child, she began her artistic career by making lace-patterns for her mother, who was engaged in that trade. Others claim that she received initial instruction in oil technique from the undistinguished Venetian painter Giuseppe Diamantini.
The last years of Carriera's long life were tragic, as her sight, which might have been damaged by miniature-painting in her youth, deserted her completely, and she went blind. She endured two unsuccessful cataract operations. She outlived all her family, spending her last years in a little house in the Dorsoduro sector of Venice. - wikipedia
