{{Short description|Swedish painter (1718–1793)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}} {{Infobox artist | bgcolour = | name = Alexander Roslin | image = Alexander Roslin - Self-Portrait - Google Art Project.jpg | imagesize = | caption = ''Self Portrait while Painting the King of Sweden'' (1785) | birth_date = {{Birth date|1718|7|15|df=y}} | birth_place = Malmö, Sweden | death_date = {{death date and age|1793|7|5|1718|7|15|df=y}} | death_place = Paris, France | spouse = {{Marriage|Marie-Suzanne Giroust|1759}} | signature = Alexander Roslin signature.svg }} '''Alexander Roslin''' ({{IPA|sv|alɛkˈsǎnːdɛr rʊsˈliːn|pron}}; spelled '''Alexandre''' in French, {{IPA|fr|alɛksɑ̃dʁ ʁɔslɛ̃|pron}}; 15 July 1718{{spnd}}5 July 1793) was a Swedish painter who worked in Scania, Bayreuth, Paris, Italy, Warsaw and St. Petersburg, primarily for members of aristocratic families. He combined insightful psychological portrayal with a skillful representation of fabrics and jewels.<ref name="Krol">{{cite book | title=Skandinavskii sbornik | url=http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Alexander+Roslin| publisher=Tallinn | access-date=23 February 2014 | last=Krol | first=A. E. | pages=219–33 | year=1970 | volume=15 | postscript=,}} cited in "Roslin, Alexander", Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd ed., translation 2010.</ref><ref name="Per Bjurström 1993, page 56, 163">{{cite book |first= Per |last=Bjurström |title= Roslin |year=1993 |isbn=9171195556 |publisher=Höganäs |pages=56, 163, 168–169, 208, 233 |language=sv}}</ref>
His style combined Classicist tendencies with the lustrous, shimmering colours of Rococo, a jocular, elegant and ornate style. He lived in France from 1752 until 1793, a period that spanned most of his career.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pastellists.com/Articles/RoslinA.pdf?zoom_highlight=roslin#search= |first=Neil |last= Jeffares|title=Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, online edition |access-date=23 February 2014}}</ref> The painting by Roslin depicting Jeanne Sophie de Vignerot du Plessis, Countess of Egmont Pignatelli, was bought by the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 2006 for US$3 million.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.antikvarlden.se/reportage/alexander-roslin.aspx?article=6420 |newspaper=Antikvärlden |title=Alexander Roslin |access-date=23 February 2014 |language=sv |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223022522/http://www.antikvarlden.se/reportage/alexander-roslin.aspx?article=6420 |archive-date=23 February 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Kinsella|first=Eileen|title=Minneapolis Museum acquires a $3m Roslin portrait|url=http://www.artnews.com/2006/06/06/minneapolis-museum-acquires-a-3m-roslin-portrait/|access-date=24 February 2014|newspaper=Art News|date=6 June 2006}}</ref> Roslin also has pieces displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alexander Roslin {{!}} Gustav III |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/699679 |access-date=2023-10-09 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}</ref>
== Life == thumb|Double portrait of Roslin and his wife, 1767 thumb|A portrait of Roslin's wife, Marie Suzanne Giroust-Roslin, 1770 Alexander Roslin was born on 15 July 1718, in Malmö, Sweden, the son of naval physician Hans Roslin and Catherine Wertmüller. After showing an unusual talent for drawing and painting, he trained in drawing at Karlskrona under Admiralty Captain Lars Ehrenbill<ref>[http://www.adelsvapen.com/genealogi/Ehrenbill_nr_1515 "Adliga ätten Ehrenbill nr 1515"], Lars Ehrenbill, Tab. 2 {{in lang|sv}}</ref> (1697–1747) in order to become a naval draughtsman, and then began to paint miniatures.<ref name=handlexikon/> Stockholm had become an intellectual and artistic center since Queen Christina had established connections with Paris, and Alexander Roslin moved there.<ref>{{cite book |first=Sven |last=Stolpe |title=Drottning Kristina. 2, Efter tronavsägelsen |year=1974 |isbn=91-0-039241-3 | publisher=Bonnier |location=Stockholm |pages=142 & 145}}</ref> At the age of sixteen he became apprenticed to the court painter Georg Engelhard Schröder in Stockholm, studying painting there until 1741 and beginning to paint large portraits in oils.<ref name=handlexikon/> Schröder was influenced by Hyacinthe Rigaud and Nicolas de Largillière.<ref name=WebGallery>[http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/r/roslin/alexande/biograph.html Roslin, Alexander], Web Gallery of Art, retrieved 17 February 2014.</ref> In 1741, Roslin settled in Gothenburg, and the following year moved to Scania, where he remained until 1745 painting portraits<ref name=handlexikon>Herman Hofberg, [https://runeberg.org/sbh/b0372.html "Roslin, Alexander"], ''Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon'' (In Swedish)</ref> and also creating religious paintings for the church at Hasslöv.<ref name=WebGallery/>
In 1745, Roslin left Sweden for Bayreuth, where he had been invited to work for Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach.<ref name=Malmo>Bo Gentili, [http://www.malmo.se/Medborgare/Kultur--noje/Arkiv--historia/Kulturarv-Malmo---Historiska-platser-personer-och-handelser/P-S/Roslin-Alexander.html "Alexander Roslin 1718–1793"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222165709/http://www.malmo.se/Medborgare/Kultur--noje/Arkiv--historia/Kulturarv-Malmo---Historiska-platser-personer-och-handelser/P-S/Roslin-Alexander.html |date=22 February 2014 }}, Kulturarv Malmö, 18 August 2010, retrieved 17 February 2014 {{in lang|sv}}</ref> In 1747, he moved to Italy to study the works of the great masters. While in Italy he portrayed, among others, the family of Philip, Duke of Parma in 1752. In the same year Roslin moved to Paris, at the age of 34, where he settled for the rest of his life.<ref name=handlexikon/><ref name=Nationalmuseum/> Here, in 1759, he married the pastel painter Marie-Suzanne Giroust (1734–1772).<ref name=BBC>{{Art UK bio|oxbio=1|retrieved=17 February 2014}}</ref> The couple had three sons and three daughters.<ref name=Nationalmuseum/> In 1768 Roslin painted her dressed in Bolognese fashion, ''The Lady with the Veil'', a portrait that the art critic, writer and philosopher Denis Diderot judged "très piquante".<ref name=Veil/><ref name=Rijksmuseum/> In 1767 he painted a double portrait of them both; she is depicted working in pastels on a portrait of Henrik Wilhelm Peill, while Roslin points at a gold box he received from Peill as a present.<ref name=Rykner/> The frame of the painting is inscribed ''Loin et près'' (''Far away and yet close''), showing that the portrait was a token of friendship.<ref name=Rykner>Didier Rykner, [http://www.thearttribune.com/Two-Paintings-by-Alexandre-Roslin.html "Two Paintings by Alexandre Roslin for Versailles and Stockholm"], ''The Art Tribune'', 6 December 2013.</ref> This painting was purchased by the Swedish National Museum in 2013.<ref>[http://artdaily.com/news/66722/Sweden-s-Nationalmuseum-acquires-family-portrait-painted-in-1767-by-Alexander-Roslin#.UvOG8XmTTWc "Sweden's Nationalmuseum acquires family portrait painted in 1767 by Alexander Roslin"], ArtDaily, 2013, retrieved 17 February 2014.</ref>
== Career == In Paris he was a protégé of François Boucher and his work rapidly became fashionable.<ref>[https://www.bukowskis.com/sv/fineartbukipedia/3091-alexander-roslin "Alexander Roslin"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180106070610/https://www.bukowskis.com/sv/fineartbukipedia/3091-alexander-roslin |date=6 January 2018 }}, Bukowskis, retrieved 17 February 2014 {{in lang|sv}}</ref> He was chosen as a member of the French Art Academy,<ref name=Rijksmuseum>Maarten Levendig, [http://rijksmuseumamsterdam.blogspot.se/2013/06/alexander-roslin-lady-with-veil-1768.html#!/2013/06/alexander-roslin-lady-with-veil-1768.html "Alexander Roslin: The Lady with the Veil (1768); Nationalmuseum, Stockholm"], Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, 23 June 2013.</ref> to which his wife also belonged.<ref name=handlexikon/> His early portraits are painted in bright, cool colours, and show the influence of Jean-Marc Nattier and Hyacinthe Rigaud.<ref>{{cite book |first=Märta |last=Holkers |title=Den svenska målarkonstens historia|year=2007 |isbn=978-91-0-011735-1 | publisher=Bonnier |location=Stockholm |pages=88}}</ref> <ref>{{cite book |first=Per |last=Bjurström |title=Roslin|year=1993 |isbn=978-91-0-011735-1 | publisher=Wiken |location=Höganäs |pages=30–40}}</ref> Around the 1760s he started using daring colouring in his paintings, such as in the portrait of his wife, ''The Lady with the Veil'' (1768), and the ''Jennings Family'' (1769).<ref name=Veil>[http://www.nationalmuseum.se/sv/english-startpage/Collections/Painting/18th-century/The-Lady-with-the-Veil--/ "''The Lady with the Veil'' by Alexander Roslin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222025925/http://www.nationalmuseum.se/sv/english-startpage/Collections/Painting/18th-century/The-Lady-with-the-Veil--/ |date=22 February 2014 }}, Nationalmuseum, retrieved 17 February 2014.</ref>
Roslin had great technical skill in painting the surfaces and texture of precious materials such as fabrics and jewels, but was also adept at capturing his sitters at their best.<ref name=Nationalmuseum/><ref name=Rijksmuseum/> In Paris he soon became one of the foremost portraitists of his time, valued mostly for practiced rendering of luxurious fabrics and gentle complexions: "Satin, skin? Go to Roslin."<ref name=BBC/> His portraits of members of the French aristocracy show sensitivity and taste<ref>Märta Holkers, ''Den svenska målarkonstens historia'', Stockholm: Bonnier, 2007, {{ISBN|978-91-0-011735-1}} {{in lang|sv}}</ref> and also psychological insight,<ref name="Krol "/> although changes in taste might make his faces seem "stiff and lifeless" to some observers today.<ref name=Malmo/> In 1765 he scored a significant triumph when his portrait of Louis, Duke of La Rochefoucauld and his family, painted in competition with Jean-Baptiste Greuze, was awarded the prize. He also painted several portraits of members of the French royal family and foreign princes, including the Swedish king Gustav III and his brothers.<ref name=handlexikon/> In the second half of the 18th century, having one's portrait painted by Roslin was the highpoint of public esteem.<ref name=Nationalmuseum/> In 1771 Roslin, although a foreigner (often called ''Roslin le suédois'', "Roslin the Swede"<ref name=Nationalmuseum/>), was awarded a pension and a free apartment in the Louvre.<ref name=handlexikon/> The following year he was awarded the Royal Order of Vasa by his native country, after which he was also called ''Roslin le Chevalier'' ("Roslin the knight").<ref name=Nationalmuseum>[http://artdaily.com/news/22776/The-Nationalmuseum-in-Stockholm-Presents-Alexander-Roslin---Sweden-s-Forgotten-Art-Icon#.UwJLCoUmjNk "The Nationalmuseum in Stockholm Presents Alexander Roslin – Sweden's Forgotten Art Icon"], ''ArtDaily'', 2007, retrieved 17 February 2014.</ref>
He was often surrounded by Swedish visitors to Paris, such as Peill. He was also a good friend of the influential Swedish politician Count Carl Gustaf Tessin.<ref name=Nationalmuseum/> After his wife's death, during the years 1774–75, Roslin visited Sweden, where he had been elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, oddly enough as a foreign honorary member.<ref name=handlexikon/><!-- He was also a member of the Vienna Academy of Arts and of the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. --> During the visit, he painted the members of the Swedish royal family, his self-portrait while painting the king, and also portraits of the statesman Carl Fredrik Scheffer and the naturalist Carl Linnaeus.<ref name=handlexikon/>
On his way back to Paris he visited St. Petersburg, where he painted several portraits of Empress Catherine II of Russia and some notable portraits of Russian aristocrats between 1775 and 1777.<ref name="Ency">{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Alexander+Roslin | title=Roslin, Alexander | encyclopedia=Dictionary.com, copied from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia | access-date=21 February 2014}}</ref><ref name=Royal>{{cite web|title=Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna|url=http://www.royalfamily.org/artwork/12_07/1207_eng.swf|publisher=royal family.org|access-date=24 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227220834/http://www.royalfamily.org/artwork/12_07/1207_eng.swf|archive-date=27 February 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> Catherine tried to persuade him to stay in her service, but Roslin declined and returned to France.<ref name=handlexikon/> He died in Paris on 5 July 1793 of natural causes after surviving the French Revolution and outliving many of his patrons;<ref name=Malmo/> at that time he was the wealthiest artist in Paris.<ref name=Nationalmuseum/> <gallery class="center" perrow="7" widths="140px" heights="150px" caption="Early works"> File:Countess Françoise Marguerite de Grignan (1646-1705).jpg|''Countess Françoise Marguerite de Grignan'' the daughter of Madame de Sévigné, 1753 File:Alexander Roslin 021.jpg| ''Katarzyna Mniszech'', 1752 File:Flora (Museum of Bordeaux).jpg|''Flora'' or ''Hebe'' </gallery>
== Works == [[File:Alexander Roslin - The Lady with the Veil (the Artist's Wife) - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|220px|''The Lady with the Veil'' (The Artist's Wife), 1768, dressed "à la Bolognaise"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rijksmuseumamsterdam.blogspot.se/2013/06/alexander-roslin-lady-with-veil-1768.html#!/2013/06/alexander-roslin-lady-with-veil-1768.html|title=alexander-roslin-lady-with-veil-1768|publisher=rijksmuseumamsterdam|access-date=11 October 2014}}</ref>]] Stylistically, his paintings are Classicist in some respects, but primarily Rococo.<ref name=Rijksmuseum/> The vast majority show members of the European nobility and of leading political and cultural circles. Roslin was enormously successful among members of French high society, becoming one of the wealthiest artists of the era in France.<ref name=Malmo/>
He painted a number of portraits of Russian Imperial statesmen, including images of Ivan Betskoi and his sister Anastasia Ivanovna, and of Ivan Shuvalov. He also painted some notable portraits of Polish and French aristocratic ladies. He signed his works ''Roslin Suédois''. As a member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture Roslin exhibited his paintings at the Salon de Paris, the official exhibition of members' work. Founded in 1725 the Salon became, between 1748 and 1890, the greatest biannual art event in the Western world.<ref name="NGA">{{cite web | url=http://nga.gov.au/Research/Salons.cfm | title=Paris salons | work=National Gallery of Austria | access-date=21 February 2014 | archive-date=14 June 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614041542/http://nga.gov.au/Research/Salons.cfm | url-status=dead }}</ref> From 1753 Roslin exhibited 18 times at the Salon.<ref name="Antik">{{cite web | url=http://www.antikvarlden.se/reportage/alexander-roslin.aspx?article=6420 | title=Alexander Roslin | work=Antik | access-date=21 February 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223022522/http://www.antikvarlden.se/reportage/alexander-roslin.aspx?article=6420 | archive-date=23 February 2014 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalmuseum.se/sv/English-startpage/Collections/Collections/Painting/18th-century/The-Lady-with-the-Veil--/|title=The-Lady-with-the-Veil|publisher=www.nationalmuseum.se|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304053259/http://www.nationalmuseum.se/sv/English-startpage/Collections/Collections/Painting/18th-century/The-Lady-with-the-Veil--/|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Roslin's popularity with both his foreign and his Swedish audiences during his lifetime is undisputed. He was one of the foremost portrait painters of his time, widely known for his masterful ability to reproduce his sitters' fashionable garments with their silks, lace, pearls and gold filaments. Roslin's ability to capture the personality of the people he depicted made him popular with his clients and allows us, even today a few hundred years later, to still feel close to the people he painted. He flattered and beautified his subjects according to the Rococo ideal.<ref name="Per Bjurström 1993, page 56, 163 "/> Roslin's portrait of Anne Vallayer-Coster is praised particularly and became much debated after the Salon. In ''Le Véridique au Salon'', published in 1783, it was described as one that "belonged to the artist's best". The picture has been compared to the contemporary artist Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun's celebrated self-portrait. Roslin depicted his model in a cool colour scale; in green, white, and blue, with the artist's attributes of palette and brushes, a common way for artists to depict themselves. Because of this, Roslin's painting was sometimes misinterpreted by art historians as a self-portrait by Vallayer-Coster.<ref name="Per Bjurström 1993, page 56, 163"/>
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== Gallery == <gallery class="center" perrow="7" widths="175" heights="175" caption="Paintings"> File:Roslin Neubourg-Cromiere 01.JPG|''Baroness de Neubourg-Cromière'' (1756) File:Alexander Roslin - King Gustav III of Sweden and his Brothers - Google Art Project.jpg|''King Gustav III of Sweden and his Brothers'' (1771) File:The artist Anne Vallayer-Coster.jpg|''Anne Vallayer-Coster'', French painter, 1783 File:Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz1.jpg|'' Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz'', Swedish architect (1754) File:Alexander Roslin - The Comtesse d'Egmont Pignatelli in Spanish Costume.jpg|''Jeanne Sophie de Vignerot du Plessis, Countess of Egmont Pignatelli'' (1763) File:Carl von Linné.jpg|Swedish botanist and originator of binomial nomenclature, ''Carl Linnaeus'' (1775) File:Alexander Roslin 026.jpeg|''Baron Thure Leonard Klinckowström'' (1758) File:Alexander Roslin - John Jennings Esq., his Brother and Sister-in-Law - Google Art Project.jpg|''John Jennings, His Brother and Sister-in-Law'' (1769) File:Maria Amalia of Austria by Roslin.jpg|''Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria (later Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma)'' File:Portrait of Empress Catherine II.jpg|''Empress Catherine the Great of Russia'' (1780s) File:Roslin Anastasia Ivanovna, Countess of Hesse-Homburg, Princess Trubetskaya.jpg|''Anastasia Ivanovna, Hereditary Princess of Hesse-Homburg, Princess Trubetskaya'' File:Jean-François Marmontel.jpg|'' Jean-François Marmontel'', French historian and writer (1767) File:Alexandre Roslin, Louis de France, dauphin (1765) - 002.jpg|''Louis de France, the Dauphin of France'', the heir to the throne of France (1765) File:Alexander Roslin - Portrait of Prince Vladimir Golitsyn Borisovtj - Google Art Project.jpg|''Prince Vladimir Borisovich Golitsyn'' (1762) File:Christian VII 1772 by Roslin.jpg|''King Christian VII of Denmark'' (1772) File:Terray, Abbé Joseph Marie.jpg|''Portrait of Joseph Marie Terray'' (1774) File:Collin de Vermont (Versailles).jpg|''Hyacinthe Collin de Vermont'', French painter File:Carl Fredrik Scheffer - riksråd.jpg|''Carl Fredrik Scheffer'', Swedish riksråd (privy councilor) File:Alexander Roslin 025.jpeg|''Jean-Baptiste Eugénie Du Mangin or Jean-Baptiste Dumangin'' France (1789) </gallery>
== See also == *List of Swedish artists
== References == {{reflist}}
== Further reading == * Magnus Olausson; Eva-Lena Karlsson (eds.) ''Alexander Roslin''. Exhibition catalog. Nationalmusei utställningskatalog 652. Stockholm: Nationalmuseum. 2007. {{ISBN|9789171007711}}.
== External links == {{Commons}} *[http://www.museumsyndicate.com/artist.php?artist=929 Gallery of Roslin's Work] *[http://www.pastellists.com Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, online edition]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Roslin, Alexander}} Category:1718 births Category:1793 deaths Category:18th-century Swedish painters Category:18th-century Swedish male artists Category:Swedish male painters Category:Court painters Category:Artists from Malmö Category:Rococo painters Category:Swedish portrait painters Category:Burials at Montmartre Cemetery Category:18th-century French painters Category:French male painters Category:19th-century French painters Category:French portrait painters Category:Age of Liberty people Category:19th-century French male artists Category:18th-century French male artists Category:Artists from Skåne County