A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Rozee, Mademoiselle
ROZEE, MADEMOISELLE.
This extraordinary lady was born at Leyden in 1682. Konbraken says he cannot tell how she managed her work, nor with what instruments; but that she painted on the rough side of the panel, in such tints, and in such a manner, that, at a competent distance, the picture had all the effect of the neatest pencil and high finishing. Other writers, however, affirm, that she neither used oil nor watercolours in her performances; and only worked on the rough side of the panel with a preparation of silk floss, selected with great care, and disposed in different boxes, according to the several degrees of bright and dark tints, out of which she applied whatever colour was requisite for her work; and blended, softened, and united there with such Inconceivable art and judgment, that she imitated the warmth of flesh with as great a glow of life as could be produced by the most exquisite pencil in oil. Nor could the nicest eye discern, at a proper distance, whether the whole was not the work of the pencil. But by whatever art her pictures were wrought, they were exquisitely beautiful, and perfectly natural. Her portraits were remarkably faithful, and every object was a just imitation of the model, whether the subject was animal life, architecture, landscape, or flowers. As her manner of working could not well be accounted for, she was distinguished by the name of the Sorceress. One of her landscapes is said to have been sold for five hundred florins; and though the subject was only the trunk of an old tree covered with moss, and a large spider finishing its web among the leaves and branches, every part appeared with so great a degree of force and expression, that it was beheld with astonishment. One of her principal performances is in the cabinet at Florence, and is considered a singular curiosity in that collection. She died in 1680.