Young Russian Woman

Description This painting of a young woman with her head slightly tilted back, parted lips, low cut dress, and gaze that meets that of the beholder is a study in the coy sensuality so often encountered in French rococo art of the period. The painting lacks the formality of a commissioned portrait and is rather a study of female seductiveness meant for a male patron. Rotari worked in his native Verona before moving to Vienna and Dresden and finally became court painter to Empress Elizabeth of Russia in 1756. This work is from his time in St. Petersburg. For more information on this painting, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue Italian Paintings in the Walters Art Gallery, no. 456, pp. 568-569.

Provenance Kotchoubey, Paris [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Mrs. Julius Levy, Baltimore, prior to 1925 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Philip B. Perlman, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1960, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Transcription] In crayon on the stretcher: P. Rotari; [Transcription] In ink on the reverse of the canvas: B A K; [Label] Undecipherable label and red wax customs seal

Credit Bequest of Philip B. Perlman, 1960