In building her career, Carriera found it essential to rely on a widespread social network of long-lasting relationships with highly influential commissioners all over Europe. Often she became involved with intermediary figures, usually agents and couriers who helped her gain access to the international art market. These individuals worked for various courts throughout Europe. They corresponded regularly with Carriera and paid her visits. One has only to remember the pivotal role that Christian Cole played in helping her become a member of the Accademia di San Luca. Over the years while she worked in Venice as an independent artist, she cultivated many indispensable relationships. When it came to doing business with European aristocrats and intellectuals, for instance, Carriera was able to fall back on her friendship with her godfather, the notary Carlo Gabrieli, who took care of her business transactions in Venice with foreigners, making sure they followed the correct procedures and did not trick his godchild.

Attacked by the British

As early as the end of the seventeenth century, Carriera attracted English clients interested in her miniatures. They also commissioned what they called her crayon paintings. Over time, her relationships with the English aristocracy grew more extensive; their stops in the lagoon city became a standard feature in the grand tour that young European noblemen were expected to take. Visiting the artist's studio on the Grand Canal soon became an obligatory part of their stays in Venice. Upper-class Englishmen either asked for their portraits to be painted directly by Carriera, or they ordered one of her paintings, to be picked up or sent on from Venice at a later date. Also in England, Carriera enjoyed huge fame, and the enormous popularity of her works grew to the point that amateur pastellists copied her likenesses that her clients brought back from Italy. In deference to unique artistry, these English works came to be presented as the work of ‘Roselby’, one example of how her promoters misspelled her name. Considered overall, Carriera exercised a more direct influence on her British contemporaries than any other eighteenth-century Italian painter.

Her correspondence illustrates further how much her art was appreciated in England.