Artwork
A Sleeping Girl
A Sleeping Girl is an oil painting by the Rococo painting artist Pietro Rotari. It dates from 1761 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Technique & Style
3 cm in width, reflecting the relatively intimate scale common in private portrait commissions of the period.
The painting is executed in oil on canvas, a support typical of 18th-century portraiture. The work measures 45.4 cm in height and 35.3 cm in width, reflecting the relatively intimate scale common in private portrait commissions of the period. The handling of light and soft modeling of the figure's face demonstrates Rotari's characteristic Rococo-influenced technique, emphasizing delicate surface finish and subtle tonal gradation.
The composition maintains a restrained formal balance, with the sitter positioned slightly off-center to suggest a naturalistic ease in pose while preserving the idealized grace expected of aristocratic subjects.
History & Provenance
A Sleeping Girl is an oil on canvas painting by Pietro Rotari, dated 1760. According to provenance records, Empress Catherine II of Russia presented the work to Prince Aleksandr Andreyevich Bezborodko, who later passed it to Prince Viktor Pavlovich Kochubei. The painting entered the Samuel H. Kress Collection through a July 1932 purchase, and was subsequently gifted to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1939. The National Gallery of Art now holds the work within its Samuel H. Kress Collection.
The sale documentation indicates the painting was part of a group acquired from the Royal Palace of Catherine of Russia, with the transaction recorded in the Samuel H. Kress Foundation archives. The work was later documented in Alfred M. Frankfurter's 1932 publication, confirming its presence in the Kress Collection by year's end.
The painting measures 45.4 cm in height and 35.3 cm in width, consistent with its classification as an 18th-century portrait.
The provenance chain reflects a documented transfer from Russian imperial circles to European private hands, then to an American art collector, culminating in its donation to a public museum.
A Sleeping Girl is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., as part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection; it entered the gallery in 1939 as a gift from the Kress Foundation, which had purchased it in July 1932 from Count Alessandro Bonacossi in Rome.
Earlier provenance traces the painting to the royal palace of Catherine II of Russia, who is said to have given it to Prince Aleksandr Andreyevich Bezborodko, her secretary of petitions and later imperial chancellor; Bezborodko in turn gave it to Prince Viktor Pavlovich Kochubei, Russian diplomat and statesman. The 1932 bill of sale describes it as having come from the Royal Palace of Catherine of Russia and records its passage through the collections of Prince Besborodko and Prince Kociubey, Hetman of Ukraine.
Documentation of the work in the Kress Collection by late 1932 is provided by Roberto Longhi's expert opinion on a Kress photograph, dated November 1932, and by Alfred M. Frankfurter's December 1932 article "Eighteenth Century Venice in a New York Collection," which reproduced the painting.
Legacy
A Sleeping Girl exerted influence through its acquisition by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1932 and subsequent donation to the National Gallery of Art in 1939, establishing its presence in a major public collection and enabling broader public and scholarly engagement with Rotari's work. Its provenance, traced to Empress Catherine II of Russia and Russian nobility, contributed to its early reputation as a significant example of 18th-century Venetian portraiture, later recognized as a representative of the Rococo tradition. The painting's inclusion in the Kress Collection, documented through expert assessment and publication in 1932, facilitated its study and contextualization within European art narratives, particularly regarding Russian patronage and the transmission of art across political boundaries.
Its legacy is tied to its role in shaping understanding of Rotari's output and the evolution of European art collecting in American institutions.
Overview
Created in 1761, A Sleeping Girl is an oil on canvas work by the Italian painter Pietro Antonio Rotari. The composition centers on a youthful female figure captured in a moment of tranquil slumber. Rotari, active during the late Baroque period, rendered the scene with a refined attention to surface detail and a gentle, decorative sensibility typical of the Rococo aesthetic.
Subject & Meaning
The canvas presents a young woman reclined with her head tipped back, lips slightly parting as she rests. She wears a blue jacket trimmed with a white ruffled collar, a yellow corset, and a red headscarf edged in gold. Her closed eyes, softened facial features, and the warm glow of her skin convey a serene, intimate atmosphere, inviting contemplation of private repose.
Context
The painting emerges at a time when the Baroque’s dramatic intensity was giving way to the more playful, intimate tone of Rococo. Rotari’s focus on a solitary, domestic subject mirrors the period’s shift toward private, leisurely scenes, while his continued use of Baroque chiaroscuro maintains a link to earlier artistic conventions.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Pietro Antonio Rotari (30 September 1707 – 31 August 1762) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.
