Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/136

Rh brother-in-law, Antonio Pellegrini, whom she later accompanied to Paris and London and assisted in the decorative works he executed there.

Rosalba's fame in Venice was such that she was invited to the courts of France and Austria, where she painted many portraits. She was honored by election to the Academies of Rome, Bologna, and Paris.

This artist especially excelled in portraits of pretty women, while her portraits of men were well considered. Among the most important were those of the Emperor Charles, the kings of France and Denmark, and many other distinguished persons, both men and women.

The Grand Duke of Tuscany asked for her own portrait for his gallery. She represented herself with one of her sisters. Her face is noble and most expressive, but, like many of her pictures, while the head is spirited and characteristic, the rest of the figure and the accessories are weak. A second portrait of herself—in crayons—is in the Dresden Gallery, and is very attractive.

While in England Rosalba painted many portraits in crayon and pastel, in which art she was not surpassed by any artist of her day. Her diary of two years in Paris was published in Venice. It is curious and interesting, as it sets forth the customs of society, and especially those of artists of the period.

Returning to Venice, Rosalba suffered great depression and was haunted by a foreboding of calamity. She lived very quietly. In his "Storia della Pittura Veneziana," Zanetti writes of her at this time: "Much of interest