Angelica Kauffman: the Royal Academy’s compensation gift

Angelica Kauffman had to wait many years before being celebrated by the prestigious institution she helped found in 1768. The Royal Academy of Arts now makes amends with an exhibition dedicated to the artist, cultured and cosmopolitan, eclectic and tireless, a perfect representative of the his century, the eighteenth century.

Born in Switzerland, lived in London, Florence, Venice, Rome and Naples, encouraged by her artist father, she began painting as a child, gaining fame and wealth at a very young age and collecting supporters and patrons. She spoke five languages, she was an excellent musician and singer, she loved to converse regarding poetry and literature, she was at home in the salons of the Enlightenment and in the royal palaces of Europe.

Her first self-portrait was painted at the age of 12, the first of a long series of images with which she chose to present herself to the world, with calm self-confidence, almost always with pencil, palette and brushes, eyes fixed on those who look at her.

He gave the Self-portrait all’antica, from 1787, to the Grand Duke of Tuscany for his famous gallery of artists’ self-portraits in the Uffizi corridor, where it hung next to that of Michelangelo.

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Women were his favorite subject. Even in historical and mythological paintings, which she favored because at the time they were considered the highest form of art, traditionally reserved for male artists, women are always at the center of everything. The protagonists are them: Penelope, Cleopatra, Armida, Alcestis, Eleanor of Castile, the nine muses of classical mythology. Also on display is the famous group portrait of the founders of the Royal Academy, painted by Johan Zoffany. Dozens of artists converse, observe, debate around two models during a life drawing session.