Angelica Kauffman

Lore & Background

In 1766, Kauffman moved to London, where she was well received by society and the royal family. She became a close friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who painted her and whom she painted in return. She was among the signatories to the petition for the establishment of the Royal Academy, and in its first catalogue of 1769 she appeared with 'R.A.' after her name. She exhibited annually with the Academy from 1769 to 1782, sending classical and allegorical subjects. She also painted the ceiling of the Academy's Council Room at Somerset House with a series titled The Elements of Art.

Reader's Guide

Angelica Kauffman's significance lies in her role as a pioneering female history painter at a time when women were largely denied access to the training required for that genre, particularly the study of male anatomy. She overcame this by copying drawings, engravings, and plaster casts. Her identification as a history painter was unusual for an 18th-century woman artist, and she was disappointed by the British public's relative apathy toward history painting, which led her to leave for Rome. Her legacy includes her founding membership in the Royal Academy, her allegorical ceiling paintings, and her success in navigating the male-dominated art world of her era. She is remembered as one of the few women to achieve such prominence in academic art circles.

Did You Know?

• Kauffman was a child prodigy who learned four languages from her mother: German, Italian, French, and English.
• She was elected to the Accademia di San Luca in May 1765, submitting Allegory of Hope as her reception piece.
• In 1775, fellow Academician Nathaniel Hone painted a satirical picture, The Conjurer, which originally included a nude caricature of Kauffman; she complained and he painted it out.
• She married an imposter calling himself Count Frederick de Horn in 1767, but they separated the following year.