RA Collection: People and Organisations
Angelica Kauffman spent only 15 years in England, but made a significant impact on the 18th-century London art scene, becoming one of only two female Founder Members of the Royal Academy.
Born in Chur, Switzerland in 1741, Kauffman trained with her father, the Austrian painterJoseph Johann Kauffman, and was recognised as a child prodigy. The family moved between Austria, Switzerland and Italy where she established a reputation as an artist and was elected a member of the Roman Accademia di San Luca at the age of just 23. After moving to London in 1766, Kauffman struck up a close friendship with Joshua Reynolds, commemorated in the portraits they painted of each other. When the Royal Academy of Arts was established in 1768 with Reynolds as President, she and Mary Moser were the only two women invited to become Founder Members.
Kauffman painted portraits and landscapes, but identified herself primarily as a history painter, the genre Reynolds placed at the heart of the Academy’s teaching. During this period, women were still prohibited from drawing nude models and could only draw the male figure from existing casts, as Kauffman depicts in Design.
In 1778, Kauffman was commissioned by the Royal Academy to paint a set of four ceiling paintings depicting the ‘Elements of Art’, to be displayed in the new Council Chamber. A visual representation of the theories that Reynolds set out in his Discourses on Art, the fouroval paintings present four female figures as Invention, Composition, Design and Colour.
In her later years, Kauffman moved back to Italy, settling in Rome, where she died in 1807. Her funeral was arranged by the famous sculptor Antionio Canova and a bust of Kauffman, sculpted by her cousin Johann Peter Kauffmann, was subsequently placed in the Pantheon in Rome, beside that of Raphael.
Foundation Member
Born: 30 October 1741 in Coire, Switzerland
Died: 5 November 1807
Nationality: Swiss
Elected RA: 10 December 1768
Gender: Female
Preferred media: Painting
Angelica Kauffman RA
Woman resting her head on a book, 1770
Etching
Angelica Kauffman RA
Invention, 1778-80
Oil on canvas
Angelica Kauffman RA
Composition, 1778-80
Oil on canvas
Angelica Kauffman RA
Design, 1778-80
Oil on canvas
Angelica Kauffman RA
Colouring, 1778-80
Oil on canvas
Angelica Kauffman RA
A scene from the story of Rhodope and King Psammetichus of Egypt, 1780
Pen and ink and wash on cream laid paper
Angelica Kauffman RA
Cow, 1762-1807
Etching
Angelica Kauffman RA
Telemachus at the Court of Sparta, 1770
Angelica Kauffman RA
Lady in a Turkish Dress, 1775
Printed in sanguine.
Angelica Kauffman RA
Ariadne abandoned by Theseus, 1778
Angelica Kauffman RA
Sappho composing an ode to Venus, 1778
Angelica Kauffman RA
Diana Preparing for Hunting, 1780
Stipple engraving
Angelica Kauffman RA
Her Majesty Queen Charlotte raising the Genius of the Fine Arts, Published 19 May 1772
Mezzotint
After Angelica Kauffman RA
Helen, 24 July 1776
Stipple engraving
After Angelica Kauffman RA
Catullus and Lesbia, 16 October 1784
Stipple engraving
After Angelica Kauffman RA
Portrait of Elizabeth (Vernon), Countess of Harcourt, 1 October 1784
Stipple engraving
After Angelica Kauffman RA
Self-portrait personifying Painting, May 1783
Stipple-engraving
After Angelica Kauffman RA
Angelica and Sacripante, 1783
Line engraving
After Angelica Kauffman RA
Self-portrait, 1 May 1809
Stipple engraving
After Angelica Kauffman RA
Portrait of Mrs Anne Damer with emblems of Fame and Sculpture
Stipple engraving
After Angelica Kauffman RA
The Nursing of Bacchus, 20 February 1791
Stipple engraving
After Angelica Kauffman RA
Self-portrait, 1 May 1809
Stipple engraving
After Angelica Kauffman RA
The Three Fine Arts, 10 November 1783
Stipple engraving
After Angelica Kauffman RA
Self-portrait, ca. 1805?
Line engraving
After Angelica Kauffman RA
Mourners at a Tomb, 1 February 1781
Stipple-engraving
Jean-Marie Delatre
Dido invoking the Gods, 15 March 1784
Stipple-engraving and etching
Jean-Marie Delatre
Penelope weeping over the bow of Ulysses, 15 March 1784
Stipple-engraving and etching
After Angelica Kauffman RA
Engraved frontispiece (Angelica Kauffman self-portrait) and letterpress title-page, 1781
Etching and engraving ; letterpress
Jean-Marie Delatre
A scene from the story of Rhodope and King Psammetichus of Egypt, 1 May 1780
Etching and engraving
John Hamilton Mortimer ARA
Bacchanal, 1762-1807
Etching
After Unidentified artist
Portrait of Angelica Kauffman RA
Stipple engraving
Henry Singleton
The Royal Academicians in General Assembly, 1795
Oil on canvas
Giovanni Gherardo De Rossi
Vita Di Angelica Kauffmann Pittrice Scritta Dal Cav. Giovanni Gherardo De Rossi - Firenze: [1810]
05/2404
A Collection Of Prints, From Pictures Painted For The Purpose Of Illustrating The Dramatic Works Of Shakspeare, By The Artists Of Great-Britain. Volume I. (II.) - London,: [1803]
04/3171
Richard Morton Paye
Etchings, by & from the most esteem'd English artists - [s.l.]: c.1875]
05/341
Léon de Wailly
Angelica Kauffmann Par Léon De Wailly. Tome Premier (Second) - Paris: 1859 Droit de traduction réservé
05/3592
James Northcote, Rome, to Saml. Northcote, Plymouth, Devonshire, England
29 May 1779
Item NOR/50
Kauffman: memoria delle pittura
1781-1798
Fonds KAU
James Northcote, Argyll Place, to J. H. Burn
22 Sep 1827
Item JU/2/136
Angelica Kauffman, Golden Square [to an unidentified recipient]
19 Feb 1777
Item JU/1/73