Painting of a Painter Painting

Roslin, Alexander. Portrait of Anne Vallayer-Coster. 1783.
Crocker Art Museum. Sacramento, CA.

I visited the Crocker Art Museum on Wednesday, November 27, just before Thanksgiving. I thought parking was going to be impossible until my daughter spotted the separate Handicapped lot with a prime spot available. The museum was pretty empty except for a group of mothers with their young children. They were coughing and not even trying to cover their mouths which did trigger my OCD a bit. We paid and headed inside the long empty room with windows on one side reaching two stories high. My daughter accompanied me up to the third floor but then went off to explore on her own. 

I selected a work of art located within the European exhibit painted by Alexander Roslin entitled “Portrait of painter Anne Vallayer-Coster”. My initial attraction to the painting was that it features a woman painter and that she was dressed in a lovely blue velvet gown. The colors are bright and appealing, drawing the eye up into her sweet face where a bit of mytery resides behind her dark eyes. The intimacy of her gaze suggests a relationship between the painter and his subject. One wonders what prompted the painting.

This painting was created in Paris and completed in 1783. Paris was soaked in the rococo style popularized by artists such as Watteau and Boucher. “Rococo style developed first in the decorative arts and interior design, and its influence later spread to architecture, sculpture, theater design, painting, and music. Rococo style is characterized by elaborate ornamentation, asymmetrical values, pastel color palette, and curved or serpentine lines.” I would add to this fashion, as rococo fashion has a distinctive style matched by the intricacy and whimsy of other artistic expressions. “After the reign of Louis XIV, the wealthy and aristocratic moved back to Paris from Versailles and began decorating their homes in the new Rococo style that was associated with King Louis XV.” Morning (https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-arthistory/chapter/rococo/) 

The artist Alexander Roslin was Swedish born and trained and had completed what was referred to at the time as a “Grand Tour” across Europe before ending in Paris. Having traveled in Scania, Bayreuth, Paris, Italy, Warsaw and St. Petersburg, he became a popular and prolific portraitist known “combined insightful psychological portrayal with a skillful representation of fabrics and jewels.[1][2] His style combined Classicist tendencies with the lustrous, shimmering colours of Rococo, a jocular, elegant and ornate style.” He was married to an artist and his own double portrait of he and his wife, completed in 1767, is one of his better known paintings. Roslin and his wife were both members of the French Art Academie and in 1771 awarded a pension and free apartment in the Louvre. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Roslin)

Roslin, Alexander. Self-Portrait with his wife
Marie-Suzanne. 1767. Nationalmuseum. Stockholm, Sweden. 

The subject of this painting, Anne Vallayer-Coster, was popular in the royal court as was Alexander Roslin and that’s likely where they crossed paths. Anne Vallayer-Coster had the patronage of Queen Marie Antoinette herself and painted the portrait of Madame Sophie, one of the “Grand Mesdames” or aunts to King Louis XVI. The Queen attended her wedding in 1781, signed her marriage contract at Versailles and later assisted her entry into the Louvre Academie, the first woman to achieve this prestigious appointment. It wasn’t unusual for the member of the Academie to patronize each other which may explain how the painting was initiated (Rembert, p. 47)

SELECTION OF NOTABLE PAINTINGS

Roslin, Alexander. Marquise de Pompadour and Marquis de Marigny (her brother).1754. 
Goteborgs konstmuseum, Goteborg Sweden.

Roslin, Alexander. Comtesse Egmont Pignatelli in Spanish Costume.1763.
Institute of Art. Minneapolis, MN.Minneapolis

Author's Note: I included the above painting as it is one of the artists better known works. Not only is it a brilliant example of his famous skill in illustrating fabrics and embellishments but because of the notable subject. The Comtesse was a popular figure in the French Court both beautiful and intelligent. Read more about her here http://www.gogmsite.net/grand-ladies-of-the-eightee/1763-comtesse-degmont-pigna.html

Vallayer-Coster, Anne. Still-Life with Tuft of Marine Plants, Shells and Corals. 1793.
Musee du Louvre. Paris, France.

Vallayer-Coster, Anne. Vase of Flowers and Conch Shell. 1780. 
The Met. New York, NY

Vallayer-Coster, Anne. Still-life with Peaches and Grapes. 1779.
National Museum of Canada. Ottawa, ON, Canada.

Vallayer-Coster, Anne. Bouquet of Flowers in a Blue Porcelain Vase.
1776. Dallas Museum of Art. Dallas, Texas.

MEDIA
Alexander Roslin (1718-1793) A collection of paintings. 2018. YouTube URL: https://youtu.be/jWiGQbJT130

Anne Vallayer Coster paintings Mozart Quartet pour piano n° 2 en mi bémol majeur KV 493. 2017. YouTube URL: https://youtu.be/EHLEQSu9fs0

Rococo: Travel, Pleasure, Madness Trailer. 2015. YouTube URL: https://youtu.be/WiDAsehHhtU

CITATIONS
Rococo | Boundless Art History. 2019. Lumenlearning.com URL: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-arthistory/chapter/rococo/

Alexander Roslin. 2019. Wikipedia Publisher: Wikimedia Foundation URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Roslin 

Rembert, Virginia Pitts. Woman's Art Journal, vol. 24, no. 2, 2003, pp. 46–47. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1358791.