Alexander Roslin

Alexander Roslin was born in 1718 in Malmö and was the son of city physician Hans Roslin and Catherine Wertmüller. He began his artistic career, after having devoted himself first to studies in construction of ships, as a student of Lars Ehrenbill. Studies then continued in Stockholm for the court portraitist Georg Engelhard Schröder and then Roslin spent some years at the court of Brandenburg Culmbach and travelled around in Italy. In 1752 he went to Paris and was asked to assist the French court painter Boucher when he depicted the king's mistress, Madame de Pompadour.
In 1753 Roslin was elected into the French Academy of Fine Arts and was represented at the Paris Salon that year with not less than five portraits. Thus began an illustrious career in the city Roslin always dreamed of, and rarely has a foreign artist there so quickly passed through and won the hearts of the art-loving Parisians.
The good Swedish-French diplomatic relations at the time and fine letter of recommendation from the Court in Parma opened the doors to French society. Roslin became the portrait painter à la mode and was awarded a government pension and artist residence in the Louvre.
From 1773, after being decorated with the Order of Vasa, he changed his signature to Chevalier Roslin from Roslin le Suédois.
Among Roslin models were public servants, fellow artists and royalty. He was the artist in fashion and his success lay in his ability to capture the extravagant 18th century costumes with perfect representation of decorations, pearls, plumes, lace and silk. His brush caught the light not only reflected in lavish and shimmering fabrics but also in the model’s skin, sparkling eyes and rosy cheeks. He was a gifted portraitist who captured the character of his influential clients with crisp clarity and finesse.
After revisiting Sweden, where he painted members of the Swedish royal family, he also worked in St. Petersburg, Warsaw and Vienna before returning to France. Alexander Roslin died at his home in the Louvre in the summer of 1793.

The portrait has been part of a French collection and depicts Antoinette Agathe Montaudoüin de Launay, married to Arthur Montaudoüin de Launay, who belonged to a very successful merchant and shipping family.