1753
pastel
canvas
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Dominant colour
An Elegant Young Lady with a Lace Cap is a 1753 pastel by Pietro Rotari, a Romanticism work, depicting Headscarf, held at National Gallery of Art.
A young woman looks straight at you, her pale face framed by a lace cap. She wears a simple blue dress with a white collar. The background is plain and dark. Rotari painted hundreds of these quiet portraits, mostly of women. He worked for royalty but liked ordinary faces best. The pastel medium—soft chalk on paper—lets him blend skin tones smoothly, almost like makeup. Look closely: her left eye is slightly softer than her right, as if she turned her head while he worked. If you like this, try the technique: pastel.
Pietro Antonio Rotari (30 September 1707 – 31 August 1762) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.
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