Elderly Lady

Dating from 1740 and held in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, this pastel of an elderly woman is an unusual subject for Rosalba Carriera and perhaps one of the most honest and unpretentious works in her late output. Unlike her portraits of aristocrats and royalty, where idealization and formal convention shaped the image, this older woman is depicted with directness that seems to accept rather than smooth over the evidence of age. The work's Venetian provenance suggests it may have been made for a Venetian client or remained in the city rather than following the usual path to Saxon or French collections. By 1740 Carriera was herself in her sixties and facing the approaching loss of her sight, and there may be something of a personal identification in her sympathetic treatment of female old age. The work is a reminder that the finest portraitists are not those who always flatter but those who can find dignity in any face.

Carriera's handling of elderly female features is distinct from her treatment of young women: she uses more varied pressure and direction in her pastel strokes to describe the altered skin, and the colour palette shifts toward cooler, more muted tones. The dignity of the portrait derives from honest observation rather than idealisation.