Alexander Roslin

Alexander Roslin was a Swedish portrait painter who made his career in Paris. His portraits stand out for their shimmering silks, lace and jewels, and for faces that are both refined and alive.

Born in Malmö, he trained in Stockholm with the court painter Georg Engelhard Schröder, then worked in Germany and Italy before settling in Paris in 1752. He became a member of the French Academy and painted European royalty and aristocracy. His most famous work, The Lady with the Veil (1768), a portrait of his wife Marie-Suzanne Giroust, is in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. His work is also in the Metropolitan Museum and the Rijksmuseum.

His portraits of the Austrian archduchesses show his extraordinary skill with satin.