The Lady with the Veil
Roslin’s wife, the pastellist Marie-Suzanne Giroust, in a black silk veil holding a fan. Roslin worked in Paris and was one of the most sought-after portrait painters in Europe.
The fabrics: the black, semi-transparent veil against the skin is a masterpiece of material and light.
Alexander Roslin was born in Malmö in 1718. After working in Sweden and at several German and Italian courts, he moved to Paris in 1752. There he soon became a member of the French Academy and one of the city’s most sought-after portrait painters. He painted royalty, aristocrats and wealthy bourgeois from all over Europe, among them King Gustav III. He was known for his meticulousness and his ability to give his sitters a calm, dignified bearing.
In 1759 Roslin married Marie-Suzanne Giroust. She was an artist herself and worked in pastel. In 1770 she became a member of the French Academy, a rare honour for a woman at the time. She died as early as 1772. The Lady with the Veil was painted in 1768 and depicts her. The couple had several children, and the family lived in Paris.
The woman looks out at the viewer with a slight, playful smile. She wears a black veil of thin silk over her head and shoulders. The veil was worn in a fashion called “à la bolonaise”, after the city of Bologna. In her hand she holds a fan, with which she partly conceals her face. The background is dark and plain.
Roslin was famous for his skill in painting fabrics. Here it is the black, semi-transparent veil that takes centre stage. It lets the pale tone of the skin show through and forms soft, light gradations where it rests against the face. Silk, lace and skin are rendered with great precision. The black fabric demands great skill, since slight differences in tone must convey folds, sheen and transparency alike.
The palette is limited: black, white and flesh tones, with a few small accents. This makes the face and hands stand out strongly. Roslin used thin layers of oil paint and very fine transitions. The surface is smooth and calm, with almost no visible brushstrokes.
The picture is a portrait but also a game of disguise and glances. The veil and the fan are at once ways of hiding and of revealing oneself. That the sitter was the artist’s wife and a painter herself adds an extra dimension. It portrays a woman who is both elegant and independent. Her gaze is direct and alert, and her smile hints at an understanding with the viewer.
Roslin remained in Paris for the rest of his life and died there in 1793. The Lady with the Veil now belongs to the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and is one of the museum’s best-known and best-loved paintings. It is often reproduced on posters and in books on 18th-century art and has become a symbol of the Swedish presence in the European art world during the Rococo.