A seated, nearly half-length young woman, with flowers in her hair, is receiving a garland of flowers from a putto. The woman has blond hair and is partially swathed in white and yellow drapery; her right breast is exposed.

Rosalba Carriera made several versions of female allegorical figures representing the Four Seasons. On 25 May 1726 her diaries recorded a set of the Four Seasons 'to dispatch to London, to Sig. Smith' (no doubt Joseph's brother John, who handled his shipments from the English end). Another set (now in the Hermitage, St Petersburg) probably belonged to Carriera's great friend Crozat in Paris. Smith, however, does not appear to have owned all four allegories: only the Winter and the Summer were part of his collection.

Carriera was born in Venice. She began her career as a painter of snuffboxes, but rose quickly to fame for her pastel portraits, which became highly desired across Europe. She spent a brief period in Paris in 1720 where she was met with great acclaim, returning to Venice where Consul Joseph Smith acted as a friend and agent. He also had the finest collection of her pastels in the city, only five of which passed into the Royal Collection in 1762. The largest group of pastels by Carriera belonged to Frederick Augustus Elector of Saxony, to whom she was introduced by the Venetian collector Francesco Algarotti. Over 100 of her pastels were on display at his residence in Dresden in a 'Rosalba Room'. The artist became blind in later life and died in 1757.

Text adapted from Canaletto & the Art of Venice, 2017.