Royal Academy of Arts
1 March - 30 June 2024
In March 2024, the Royal Academy of Arts will celebrate the life and work of Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807), a founding member of the Royal Academy and one of the most acclaimed artists of the 18th century. Presenting history paintings as well as portraits, including some of her finest selfportraits, the exhibition will trace Kauffman’s artistic career from child prodigy to one of Europe’s most sought-after painters. The exhibition will feature over 30 artworks by Kauffman and include important international loans, many of which have never been seen in the UK before.
Born in Chur, Switzerland, in 1741, Kauffman’s artistic talent was soon recognised during her childhood. As her family moved between Switzerland, Austria and Italy, Kauffman was trained as both a musician and as a painter, eventually choosing to pursue the latter professionally. She spent much of her early life in Italy, where she was able to study the works of the Old Masters. She moved to London in 1766 and enjoyed a prosperous career, earning significant fame, fortune and an influential circle of patrons, many of whom were women. When the Royal Academy was established in 1768, Kauffman was one of only two women founding members, along with Mary Moser. Kauffman exhibited extensively at the Royal Academy throughout her time in London and continued to exhibit there after her return to Rome in 1782, where she would live for the rest of her life.
The exhibition will be presented in four sections. Introducing the exhibition will be a group of Kauffman’s most celebrated self-portraits. Throughout her career, Kauffman returned to the practice of self-portraiture and presented herself in many different guises. As a woman artist, portraying herself enabled Kauffman to define her identity and take control of how she was seen by others. Highlights will include Self-portrait in the Traditional Costume of the Bregenz Forest, 1781 (Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck) and Self-portrait in All-antica Dress, 1787 (Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence), a work she presented to the Grand Duke of Tuscany for his famous gallery of artists’ self-portraits.
The following section will explore Kauffman’s training in Rome and her career after her arrival in London. In London, Kauffman was widely regarded as one of the most sought-after artists of the period; as one contemporary stated ‘the whole world is Angelicamad.’ Her Portrait of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, 1764 (Kunsthaus Zurich), painted when she was just 22 years old, was applauded for its exceptional likeness. Though very successful as a portraitist, she identified herself primarily as a history painter, the genre at the heart of the Royal Academy’s mission. Notably, Kauffman often chose to focus on female protagonists, such as in Cleopatra Adorning the Tomb of Mark Anthony, c.1769-70 (The Burghley House Collection, Lincolnshire), a picture she exhibited in the second Annual Exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1770.
The third section will examine Kauffman and the Royal Academy of Arts, looking at her success and influence in the male dominated society of the 18th century. This section will include Johan Zoffany’s famous group portrait of the Royal Academy members, The Academicians of the Royal Academy, 1771-1772 (Royal Collection Trust, London) in which Kauffman and Moser’s position as women members is starkly apparent as they are not allowed in the Life Room, where the portrait is set, and instead their presence is reduced to portraits on the wall. Other works in this section will include two of the four ceiling paintings Kauffman was commissioned to create for the original home of the Royal Academy in Somerset House: Design, and Composition, 1778-80 (both Royal Academy of Arts, London), Portrait of Joshua Reynolds, 1767 (Saltram House, Devon, National Trust Collection) as well as Self-portrait with a Bust of Minerva, c. 1780-84 (Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur), which alludes to Reynold’s famous self-portrait painted in 1780.
The final section of the exhibition will focus on Kauffman’s late career in Rome. When she returned to Italy in 1782, her studio near the Spanish Steps became a hub for the cultural elite and her status and reputation continued to prosper. One contemporary described her as ‘the most cultivated woman in Europe.’ She continued to be popular among contemporary women who wanted themselves portrayed, such as Portrait of Emma, Lady Hamilton, as Muse of Comedy, 1791 (Private Collection). In Self-portrait at the Crossroads between the Arts of Music and Painting, 1794 (Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire, National Trust Collection) Kauffman looks back at a key turning point in her life: when she decided to abandon her musical career to devote herself entirely to painting. The work is one of the most highly regarded self-portraits of the 18th century.
The exhibition will conclude with one of Kauffman’s few religious paintings, Christ and the Samaritan Woman, 1796 (Neue Pinakothek, Munich), which was one of two canvases carried in triumph at the artist’s funeral procession, organised by the sculptor, and her close friend, Antonio Canova along with other contemporary artists and scholars.
Biography
Angelica Kauffman RA Biography
Organisation
The exhibition is curated by Bettina Baumgärtel, Head of the Department of Painting at the Kunstpalast (a.D) in Düsseldorf and Head of the Angelica Kauffman Research Project, and Per Rumberg, Jacob Rothschild Head of the Curatorial Department at the National Gallery, with Annette Wickham, Curator of Works on Paper at the Royal Academy of Arts.
Accompanying Publication
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication with texts by Bettina Baumgärtel and Annette Wickham.
Images
Angelica Kauffman, Self-portrait with Bust of Minerva, c. 1780-1781. Oil on canvas, 93 x 76.5 cm. Grisons Museum of Fine Arts, on deposit from the Gottfried Keller Foundation, Federal Office of Culture, Bern
Angelica Kauffman, Design, 1778-80. Oil on canvas, 128.3 x 149 cm. © Royal Academy of Arts, London. Photo: John Hammond
Angelica Kauffman, Self-portrait at the Crossroads between the Arts of Music and Painting, 1794. Oil on canvas, 147.3 x 215.9 cm. National Trust Collections (Nostell Priory, The St. Oswald Collection). Purchased by private treaty with the help of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund 2002. Photo: © National Trust Images/John Hammond
Key 37
Angelica Kauffman, Portrait of Joshua Reynolds, 1767. Oil on canvas, 127 x 101.6 cm. National Trust Collections, Saltram, The Morley Collection (accepted in lieu of tax by H. M. Treasury, and transferred to The National Trust in 1957). Photo: © National Trust Images/Rob Matheson
Key 38
Angelica Kauffman, Portrait of Emma, Lady Hamilton, as Muse of Comedy, 1791. Oil on canvas, 127 x 101.6 cm. Private collection
Angelica Kauffman, Cleopatra Adorning the Tomb of Mark Anthony, c. 1765. Oil on canvas, 125.5 x 105 cm. The Burghley House Collection. Photo © The Burghley House Collection
Angelica Kauffman, Portraits of Domenica Morghen and Maddalena Volpato as Muses of Tragedy and Comedy, 1791. Oil on canvas, 125 x 158 cm. National Museum in Warsaw MNW. Photo © Collection of National Museum in Warsaw. Photo: Piotr Ligier
Angelica Kauffman, Self-portrait in the Traditional Costume of the Bregenz Forest, 1781. Oil on canvas, 61.4 x 49.2 cm. Innsbruck, TLM, Ältere kunstgeschichtliche Sammlung, inv. Gem 301. Photo: Innsbruck, Tiroler Landesmuseen
Angelica Kauffman, Portrait of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, 1764. Oil on canvas, 97 x 71 cm. Kunsthaus Zurich, Gift of Conrad Zeller, 1850. © Kunsthaus Zurich
