Alexander Roslin (1718 – 1793)

• Was a Swedish portrait painter.
• Alexander Roslin was born, in Malmö, Sweden.
• After showing an unusual talent for drawing and painting, he trained in drawing at Karlskrona under Admiralty Captain Lars Ehrenbill.
• At the age of sixteen he became apprenticed to the court painter Georg Engelhard Schröder in Stockholm.
• In 1741, Roslin settled in Gothenburg, and the following year moved to Scania, where he remained until 1745 painting portraits.
• Also he created religious paintings for the church at Hasslöv.
• In 1745, Roslin left Sweden for Bayreuth, where he had been invited to work for Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach.

• In 1747, he moved to Italy to study the works of the great masters.

• While in Italy he portrayed, among others, the family of Philip, Duke of Parma in 1752.

• In the same year Roslin moved to Paris, at the age of 34, where he settled for the rest of his life.

• Here, in 1759, he married the pastel painter Marie-Suzanne Giroust.

• The couple had three sons and three daughters.

• Alexander Roslin worked in Scania, Bayreuth, Paris, Italy, Warsaw and St. Petersburg. 

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