The painter Rosalba Carriera was born on October 7, 1675 in Venice. Already at the age of fourteen, she began drawing and copying oil paintings as a student of Giuseppe Diamantini. Her first successes were achieved with her tempera miniatures on ivory. In 1700, she began using pastels in her works. Because only a few of Carriera's works were dated, it is extremely difficult to order her works chronologically. It is also impossible to name some of the personages she depicted in her portraits. Her development to a more psychological portrait and the eventual turning away from general representative likenesses found her much esteem among the European nobility. Carriera's international career began when she was invited to the court in Düsseldorf in 1706. Just two years later, the high nobility of Europe were finding their own way to her studio in Venice. Antoine Watteau had her personally paint his portrait in 1719. After achieving much respect as an artist, Carriera was named an honorary member of the academies in Bologna and Paris in 1720. The works of Carriera had a great influence on such portrait artists as La Tour, Perroneau, Liotard, and Mengs. Her eyesight began seriously worsening in 1746, and she became completely blind in 1751. In a deep depression, Rosalba Carriera died on April 15, 1757 in Venice.