Portrait of a boy

Rosalba Carriera's 1726 pastel portrait of a boy, held in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, is among the child subjects that appear throughout her career. The boy is unidentified — a common situation in Carriera's less prestigious commissions or works made for personal rather than dynastic purposes. Children of the Venetian aristocracy and the diplomatic community were natural subjects for a portraitist who specialised in the tender rendering of soft features and delicate complexions. The Gallerie dell'Accademia's holding of this work alongside other Carriera pieces forms part of the Venetian institutional memory of the city's most celebrated female artist. The 1726 date places the work at the height of Carriera's powers, in the period following her Paris triumph when she was in greatest demand.

Carriera applies the gentlest of her pastel techniques to child portraiture: the palest flesh tones, the softest modelling, the most delicate transition from the warmth of the cheek to the shadow under the chin. Hair is rendered with feathery strokes that describe childhood softness without hardening into adult specificity.