Angelica Kauffmann's artistic triumph

With the rise of reality television, it has become banal for young girls to become child stars. Unfortunately, with the present attention deficit disorder society, their success is often brief and limited. Knowing how easily fame can be achieved as well as lost, it magnifies the impressiveness of the accomplishments of Angelica Kauffmann. Born in 1741 in Chur, Switzerland, Angelica Kauffman’s father, Joseph Johann Kauffmann had minimal success of his own as a painter. But, Angelica Kauffmann was quick to adopt his best qualities with her fascination for stark colors. At a young age, Angelica Kauffmann developed a reputation for herself that would evolve into becoming arguably the most prominent female painter of the 18th century and one of the leading artists of early neoclassical art .

By age 13, Angelica Kauffmann had already produced her first commissioned work. She developed such a reputation as being a prodigy that prominent figures from across Europe were beckoning for her to make a portrait of them, such as Bishop Monsignor Nevroni from Como, Italy. Her early mingling with prominent religious and political figures influenced her artistic direction in two important ways: First, it allowed her and her father to move to Italian cities that had greater connections and avenues for her to explore as a painter. Secondly, it helped mold her initial artistic style with the tone and approach for many of her early paintings. The rococo style she adopted represented aristocracy – paintings that gave nuances of wealth, pleasure, and success of societal elites. Her portraits of prominent individuals brought her initial success, but in 1763, she became acquainted with Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Winckelmann was a leading German historian and architect. Her interactions with Winckelmann forced her broaden her stylistic horizon and aroused her interest in neoclassicism. Winckelmann espoused the virtues of Greek and Roman art, whether in the field of architecture or painting. When Angelica Kauffmann moved to London in 1766, she enjoyed a rebirth and reinvention of herself that would produce her greatest artistic successes.

While she produced many portraits and decorative paintings, her greatest legacy – beyond being a respected female painter in a field popularly reserved for males – is recreating herself artistically and foreshadowing the societal and artistic shift occurring in her time. Kauffmann’s paintings started shifting away from her previous rococo style, and her paintings became neoclassical in style and tone.  The movement of neoclassicism sought to embrace the ancient, namely in Greek and Roman art. As characteristic of neoclassical painters, her paintings began to depict classical mythology and allegory, such as her neoclassical paintings Cupid and Psyche or The Mother of the Gracchi. some of her other best known mythological paintings are Sappho Inspired by Love, Ulysses And Circe, The Sorrow of Telemachus, and Hector Calls Paris To Battle. She is also well-known with works of decorative painting in early neoclassical style for buildings designed by famous neoclassical architect Robert Adam.

Her historical themes with neocassical style required painting nude heroes and Gods but female painters of eighteenth century were not allowed to work with nude models. Therefore Angelica Kauffmann studied anatomy and she produced beautiful neoclassical paintings of  heroes and Gods without working with live models.

Contemporary critics are quick to argue that her paintings are somewhere between dull and mundane. Much like popular trends are considered today at the peak of their popularity, sentimentalism gets in the way of perspective which enhanced her popularity more than is probably deserved. Still, in the context of her day, her motifs and style were unprecedented. Her accomplishments in neoclassical art of the 18th century speak for themselves. She inspired and developed friendships with many artists, ranging from Philipp Hacke to Goethe. Indeed, Goethe was among her greatest supporters by describing her as the most “accomplished woman in Europe” as a female painter. She received many orders in her years, including being the very first female painter and among the first group to be accepted into the British Royal Academy in 1768. Her paintings received commissions from Royal Courts from Austria to Russia. Her gracefulness and her meteoric rise, however, offer her a legacy more than just being the flavor of the month that critics want to assign to her. Her self-portrait hangs in the Berlin Museum solidifying her space in a world that generally would not accept her.

Tags: roman art, Neoclassical painters, raphael mengs and angelica kauffman, 18 century portrait, angelica kauffmann cupid and psyche history