Pietro Antonio Rotari

Wettinischen Secondogenitur;

Hugo von Lustig (1876-1946),

sale, Berlin, Graupe, 23 June 1933, lot 16;

sale, Cologne, Van Ham, 1 July 2000, lot 1448 reproduced, (as Attributed to Rotari, sold with a pendant);

sale, New York, Sotheby's, 23 January 2001, lot 229

N. Jeffares, "Pietro Antonio Rotari," Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, London 2006, p. 444, reproduced;

N. Jeffares, op. cit., online edition [https://www.pastellists.com/Articles/Rotari.pdf], accessed 25 February 2026, cat. no. J.631.179, reproduced

Rotari began his career in his native Verona, moving on to Venice and Rome before travelling to Vienna and then to Dresden in 1751. The reputation Rotari made there brought him to the attention of the Empress Elizabeth, who invited him to Russia and appointed him court painter in 1756, a position which he retained until his death. His best-known works of this period are the so-called teste di carattere or passioni, which are mostly portraits of young women, more often executed in oil than pastel, the latter being very much of the Venetian taste. The largest surviving group of these oil portraits are in a room of Elizabeth's palace Peterhof, outside St. Petersburg, which as they entirely cover the walls, became known as the 'Gallery of the Graces'.