Pietro Rotari was an Italian painter known primarily for his portraits. For the young Rotari, painting was initially just a pastime. However, his teacher Antonio Balestra recognised his talent, whereupon Rotari went first to Venice and then to Rome to study. He stayed in Rome for three years, training in the workshop of the portraitist Francesco Trevisani and studying ancient art and architecture. From 1731, he worked for three years in Naples in the workshop of Francesco Solimena, then returned to his home town of Verona where he opened a studio. He made a name for himself with religious paintings and was raised to nobility in 1749. Rotari worked as a portrait painter at numerous European courts from the 1750s onwards. In 1756, he became court painter in Saint Petersburg, where he painted portraits of Tsarina Elizabeth and her successor Peter III as well as his wife Catherine the Great. Rotari was commissioned by the tsar's court to paint portraits of common people. He produced over 400 portraits, which Tsarina Elisabeth donated to the Academy of Arts. Catherine the Great bought his estate for 14,000 roubles after Rotari's death.