***October 2009*** |
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Angelika Kauffmann
October 30, 1741 – November 5, 1807
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She was born in Graubünden, Switzerland, but grew up in Schwarzenberg in Austria where her family originated.
Her father, Joseph Johann Kauffmann, was a relatively poor man but a skilled painter that was often teaching his precocious, yet artistically talented daughter how to draw and paint when he wasn't traveling around when his employment demanded it.
Along with her skills as a young artist Angelika also learned to speak several languages with the help from her mother Cleophea Lutz. She was also an avid reader and showed marked talents as a musician.
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Her greatest talents, however, where in painting; and in her twelfth year she had become quite the child prodigy, with bishops and nobles for her sitters.
In 1754, at the age of thirteen, her father took her to Milan. Later visits to Italy of long duration followed: in 1763 she visited Rome, returning again in 1764. From Rome she traveled to Bologna and Venice, where she was starting to gain a reputation for both her paintings and her charm.
While at Venice, she was introduced to Lady Wentworth, the wife of the ambassador and accompanied her to London. The rank of Lady Wentworth opened society to her, and she was soon well received everywhere she went, the royal family especially showing her great favor. |
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Her best friend and loyal admirer was the influential 18th century English painter Sir Joshua Reynolds. In 1766 he painted her and she returned the compliment with her painting "Portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds."
At the age of 26, in November 1767, Angelika was entrapped into a clandestine marriage with an adventurer who passed for a Swedish count (the Count de Horn). Reynolds, rescued her from this dire predicament and helped extract her before the marriage could proceed. Along with his fondness and love for "Miss Angel", as he liked to refer to her, he also thought marriage to the count might mean the end of painting for dear Angelika, to which Sir Reynolds thought would be a terrible travesty. |
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In the Royal Academy's first catalogue of 1769, Angelika Kauffmann's name appears with "R.A." after it (an honor she shared with one other woman painter, Mary Moser). This was a sign that her paintings were beginning to receive a tremendous amount of notability. From 1769 until 1782, she was an annual exhibitor at the Royal Academy, submitting sometimes as many as seven pictures, generally classic in subject matter. In 1773 she was appointed by the Academy with others to decorate St Paul's Cathedral and it was she who, with Biagio Rebecca, painted the Academy's old lecture room at Somerset House.
Kauffann's strength was her work in historical painting, the most elite and lucrative category in academic painting during the 18th century. Under the direction of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the Academy made a strong effort to promote history painting to an English audience who were more interested in commissioning and buying portraits and landscapes. Despite the popularity that Kauffmann enjoyed in English society and her success as an artist, she was disappointed by the relative apathy that the English had for history painting. Ultimately, she left England for the continent where history painting was better established and patronized. |
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In 1781, she married Antonio Zucchi (1728–1795), a Venetian artist whom she had met in England and they moved to Rome, where she befriended, among others, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who said she worked harder and accomplished more than any artist he knew and yet was never satisfied with her output or her ability and was continually striving to paint more and better paintings.
In 1782 she lost her father; and in 1795, her husband. Angelika continued to paint at an astounding rate and also continued to contribute to the Academy, her last exhibit being in 1797.
After this she produced little, and in 1807 she died in Rome, being honored by a splendid funeral under the direction of the famous Italian sculptor, Canova. The entire Academy of St Luke, with numerous people in tow, followed her to her tomb in San Andrea delle Fratte, and, as at the burial of Raphael, two of her best pictures were carried in procession. |
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