The Lady with a Fan, The Artist's Wife

Alexander Roslin was the preeminent Swedish-born portrait painter working in Paris, whose position at the French court gave him access to the most fashionable sitters of the Rococo age. The Lady with a Fan, The Artist's Wife of 1768 depicts his wife Marie-Suzanne Giroust, herself a miniature painter and pastel portraitist of distinction. The double identity — artist's wife and independent artist — gives the picture an unusual richness. Roslin was celebrated above all for his ability to render costly textiles with almost tactile realism, and the sitter's silk dress and the fan become as much the subject as her face. Yet the painting transcends mere costume display because Roslin gives his wife's gaze an intelligence and composure that personalizes what could easily have become a fashion document. It hangs at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm as one of the masterpieces of Swedish artistic heritage abroad.

Roslin's legendary skill with silk is fully on display: the dress shimmers with precisely differentiated tones suggesting the play of light across moving fabric. The fan is handled with equal delicacy. The face, by contrast, is painted with smooth, restrained modeling that focuses attention on the sitter's expression. The overall palette is luminous silver-grey and ivory.