Alexander Roslin

Self-portrait, oil on canvas, 1790

Alexander Roslin (born July 15, 1718 in Malmö , † July 5, 1793 in Paris ) was a Swedish painter who became a fashion portraitist for the European aristocracy in the mid- 18th century .

Live and act

Alexander Roslin: Portrait of his wife, the painter Marie Suzanne Giroust, oil on canvas, 1770

Roslin received his first assignment from officer Lars Ehrenbill in Karlskrona , where Roslin's father was a doctor for the Admiralty. In 1736 he went to Stockholm and was trained as a painter by Georg Engelhard Schröder . After his patron Ehrenbill had been called to Gothenburg as commandant , Roslin followed his call in 1741 to work there as a portrait painter. In the following year he moved to Skåne , where he stayed until 1745.

From the 1750s onwards, Roslin mainly stayed in Paris , where he made a name for himself and was elected to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture . He was a friend of François Boucher . While Roslin's pictures were characterized by bright and cool colors at that time, the influence of Jean-Marc Nattier was also noticeable, for example in the portrait of Baroness von Neubourg-Cromière (1756). From 1760 onwards, there were tendencies towards a painting characterized by more strict forms and powerful colors, for example in the portraits of Lady with a Veil (1768) and the Jennings family (1769). Roslin was a gifted portrayal of fabric and flesh , but he also painted psychologically haunting portraits. He also had an eye for the taste of the time and painted with great skill, which earned him great sympathy among the Parisian aristocracy.

Works (selection)

Portrait of Count Rasumowsky , 1776, oil on canvas, 63.8 × 52.7 cm, ( National Gallery of Victoria , Melbourne)

• Friherrinnan de Neubourg-Cromière , the baroness of Neubourg-Cromière, (1756)
• Damen med slöjan , lady with veil (1768)
• Carl von Linné (1775)
• Jennings family, Jennings family (1769)
• Zoie Ghika , the Moldovan princess Zoie Ghika (1777)

literature

• Elmar Worgull : Rasumowsky depictions from Roslin to Waldmüller . An aporetic of the concept of portrait . In: Bilblos: Contributions to books, library and writing / Austrian National Library Vienna . ( Dedicated to Eva Badura-Skoda ). Böhlau Verlag, Vienna a. a. 1998, pp. 207-253.
• Alexander Roslin . In: Theodor Westrin, Ruben Gustafsson Berg (eds.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 23 : Retzius – Ryssland . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1916, Sp. 936-937 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Web links

Commons : Alexander Roslin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Works by Alexander Roslin at Zeno.org .