Angelica Kauffmann

Born in Chur in Grisons canton in 1741, she assisted her father with his paintings but was quickly recognized as a great talent in her own right. Arriving in London in 1766 she added the influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds to her earlier Italianate style. She did commissions for royal courts in Russia, Austria, and Naples. She had a short failed marriage to an adventurer called Count Horn, then later she married the Venetian painter Antonio Zucchi in 1781 and returned with him to Italy. She died in 1807.

Kauffmann's works are typically enjoyable, but the barb in that is that it is hard to see them as any deeper than "pretty". She does not seem to have the insight of her contemporary Elisabeth Vigée-LeBrun, or the easy immediacy of Reynolds. I stop by examples of her work in the National Gallery and at Kenwood and think I ought to find more in them than I do.

Swiss painter. Born 1741, died 1807.

During a stay in Rome (beginning 1762), Angelica Kauffmann came under the artistic influence of J.J. Winckelmann, and painted his portrait (1764, now on exhibit at the Kunsthaus in Zürich) - a protrait that played a great part in promoting her career as a painter.

Later, she travelled to Venice, and from 1766 to 1781, she resided in London, where her portraiture style was influenced by Joshua Reynolds. In 1768, she co-founded the Royal Academy. Also, while in London, Kauffmann executed a series of decorative historical paintings in small formats, which were widely popular and extensively reproduced.

Returning to Italy in 1781, she quickly adopted the Neoclassical style, particularly as regards her portraits.