Published at 11:06, Thursday, 10 May 2012

WHAT is the feminine equivalent of “Old Master”? That was the question posed by Leslie Primo at the beginning of his talk to the Cumbria Decorative and Fine Arts Society about Angelica Kaufmann (1741-1807).

While there were certainly women who were artists, we know very little about them. They seem to have been written out of history.

Angelica Kaufmann, born in Switzerland in 1741, was one of the most popular artists of her day. Her talent was recognised and nurtured by her father, also an artist, and her first known self-portrait, at the age of 13, shows a confident young girl holding a sheet of music, for she was also a talented musician.

By the time she was 15 she was accepting professional commissions.

The family then moved to Italy where her talent and charm were quickly recognised and she received numerous portraiture commissions. During this time she had still not decided which interest to pursue, art or music, but the opportunities to see and copy the great masters throughout Italy helped her to decide on art.

While in Venice, she made the acquaintance of Lady Wentworth, the wife of the British ambassador. Lady Wentworth persuaded her to move to England in 1766 and so great was her reputation in Europe that once in England she was able to move in the highest artistic circles. Among her greatest friends and supporters was Sir Joshua Reynolds who, charmed by her beauty, poise and talent, referred to her as “Miss Angel”.

She was one of only two women inducted in the Royal Academy when it was established in 1768.

By this time there was already, as an unmarried professional woman, gossip surrounding her private life. One year after her arrival in England she met and married a man she believed to be a Swedish count but who proved to be a confidence trickster and a bigamist. When uncovered, the man was paid off and left the country but the gossip still continued. There were rumours because she was a single woman mixing with so many men and would paint male friends, including the actor, David Garrick, in her studio without a chaperone. But despite her reputation as a loose woman, she continued to receive numerous portrait commissions.

At the age of 40 she married Antonio Zucchi, a Venetian artist then living in England. From this point Zucchi kept a detailed catalogue of her work, their prices and her patrons and this is now the only reliable contemporary record of Angelica Kaufmann’s work.

By this time she became increasingly interested in historical painting but there was little interest in this among the wealthy class in England who wanted pictures of themselves and their family, not intellectual topics. She knew that if she was to be able to paint more widely she would need to leave England and, having amassed a considerable fortune of £14,000, she and her husband left for Italy in 1781 where they lived in a sumptuous house in Rome.

During her time in England she had been at the heart of the English art scene and her departure was seen as a great loss to the English artistic world.

Demand for her work continued in Italy and with her contacts she was able to gain useful commissions. She gave drawing lessons to the members of the royal family of Naples but retained her independence by refusing a permanent position. This allowed her to accept commissions for large historical paintings from the Emperor of Austria and Catherine the Great of Russia.

During this time she retained her contacts with England and regularly submitted works to the Royal Academy exhibitions.

Angelica Kaufmann died in Rome on November 5, 1807. Her funeral procession was the largest that Rome had witnessed since that of Michelangelo, an almost unprecedented occasion.

In the end critics never forgave her for leaving England. Although she was criticised while here, it was felt that it was in England that she produced her best work.

The next meeting of the CDFAS is at the Hundith Hill Hotel, Lorton Vale on May 17 when Frances Hughes will talk about life in the 18th century theatre.

The morning talk starts at 10.45am and the afternoon session at 2.00pm. Visitors will be warmly welcomed.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk