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| Salvator Rosa Two Figures, three-quarter length before 1673 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Salvator Rosa Two Soldiers ca. 1656 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Salvator Rosa Two Standing Figures Gesticulating before 1673 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"Born in Naples in 1615, Salvator Rosa was the son of a surveyor; it was originally intended that he pursue a scholarly career, but his native talent soon inclined him more to the art of painting, in which he seems to have been largely self-taught. . . . In 1635 at the age of twenty Salvator set out for Rome, not so much to complete his very fragmentary training as to satisfy his already raging ambition. . . . Arriving in Florence in 1640, Rosa immediately devoted himself to the satisfaction of his vigorous (though not very judicious) southern ambition. Considering himself a genius, Rosa sought to make himself the talk of the town by any means possible. . . . In Florence he stood at the apex of his success; this is reflected in the fact that he was able to raise the prices for his work considerably without loss of commissions. But despite his success in Florence and the great interest in his activities expressed by the Florentine court, Rosa felt irresistibly drawn to Rome. At the end of 1648, after a preliminary journey to Volterra, he took his final leave from Florence and, except for a few brief trips, spent the rest of his life in Rome. . . . Rosa was a facile draftsman, able to capture the essential characteristics with a few strokes. . . . It is by no means to his discredit that, even in his later work, one detects an improvisational manner, the lingering traces of his self-training as a youth."
– Hermann Voss, from Baroque Painting in Rome (1925), revised and translated by Thomas Pelzel (San Francisco: Alan Wofsy, 1997)
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| attributed to Salvator Rosa Seated and Standing Figures before 1673 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Salvator Rosa Standing Figure in Antique Dress ca. 1662 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Salvator Rosa Figure Study ca. 1660-65 drawing British Museum |
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| Salvator Rosa Falling Soldier Shouting ca. 1650-52 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Salvator Rosa Figure Study ca. 1650-60 drawing British Museum |
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| Salvator Rosa Figure Study ca. 1650 drawing British Museum |
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| Salvator Rosa Studies for Kneeling Old Man ca. 1662-65 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Salvator Rosa Studies of Kneeling Figures before 1673 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Salvator Rosa Study for Kneeling Man before 1673 drawing Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Salvator Rosa Halberdier before 1673 drawing private collection |
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| Salvator Rosa Youth pulling off shirt before 1673 drawing Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |