'Angelica Kauffman Artist, Superwoman, Influencer' at Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

19 février 2020

'Angelica Kauffman Artist, Superwoman, Influencer' at Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

Angelika Kauffmann, Self-portrait of the artist at the crossroads between music and painting, detail, Rome 1794, oil on canvas, 147.3 x 215.9 cm, Nostell Priory, West Yorshire © National Trust Images / John Hammond.

The Kunstpalast dedicates a major overview exhibition to Angelika Kauffmann (1741–1807), the most famous female artist in the age of Enlightenment and Sentimentalism.

Angelika Kauffmann (1741-1807) exemplarily represents the new type of a Europe-wide networked and cosmopolitan artist. Her broad oeuvre represents essential aspects of international classicism in the age of enlightenment and sensitivity.

The Swiss-born and nominal Vorarlberg native was celebrated as a child prodigy at a young age. The painter received her education in Italy, but her breakthrough came in London. Protected by the English court, she soon prevailed in the English art scene as a sought-after portraitist and history painter and finally received orders from all over Europe. Angelika Kauffmann was one of two artists who helped found the Royal Academy and helped furnish Somerset House. Many of her works shaped the art and fashion of her time and sparked a real cult of Kauffmann. The Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf promises that some of the approximately 100 works on display will be shown for the first time.

The exhibition curated by Bettina Baumgärtel presents the entire Kauffmann - from her first self-portraits to the celebrated histories. In nine chapters there is a painter who not only successfully prevailed against the male competition and adapted her working methods to the rapidly growing orders, but who also adapted to the current taste and shaped it at the same time. Kauffmann decided early on that portrait painting was not enough for her and that she wanted to become a history painter. In this subject, too, she was able to draw attention to herself with innovations and find visual correspondences for topics of the age of sensitivity. Her works were so popular with contemporaries that Kauffmann began to work with engravers early on, to make their works accessible to a large audience. When Kauffmann died, she was praised as the "female Raphael" and buried in the Pantheon.

Self-portraits

Angelika Kauffmann in Düsseldorf starts with a series of self-portraits - or better: self-portraits. Between 1753 and 1802 she created 24 self-portraits, nine of which can be seen in the exhibition. Angelika Kauffmann is undoubtedly one of the most famous painters of her time. But how did she portray herself or how did she want to present herself to her environment (and also to posterity)? Angelika Kauffmann's self-portraits should not only be viewed as documents of her painterly virtuosity and ingenuity, but also served to ensure her status as a successful artist. The self-portraits served her as a kind of advertising in her own cause, she aimed at social recognition with them.

The fact that Angelika Kauffmann achieved international fame and recognition was unusual for a woman around 1800. Supported by her father and supported by her second husband, Angelika Kauffmann managed to leave the common role model of her time far behind and to create a new way of life and work for herself. So she switched roles with the men in her family, who worked for them as helpers, organized the assignments and kept their books. Since it was important for Kauffmann to be recognized by her noble and upper middle class clientele as one of them, she avoided adding any references to her profession in her self-portraits. How she broke up with her contemporaries' ideas of what a woman should be or what to do.

Already in “Self-Portrait as a Singer with Sheet Music” (from November 1753) the aspiring artist showed herself at the age of only 13, confidently and still in the Rococo style. Years later, the now established portrait painter tried to clearly emphasize her status as an artist: "Self-portrait with drawing pen" (around 1768), "Self-portrait as drawing, inspired by the muse of poetry" (1782), "Self-portrait with the bust of Minerva" (around 1784) and the two versions of the "Self-Portrait at the Crossroads Between Music and Painting" (1791/92 | 1794) show Kauffmann as a confident and successful lady.

Angelika Kauffmann, Self-portrait of the artist at the crossroads between music and painting, Rome, 1794, oil on canvas, 147.3 x 215.9 cm, Nostell Priory, West Yorshire © National Trust Images / John Hammond.

She had quickly realized that it was conducive to her business to have an aristocratic appearance and studio. Established formulas helped her to convey important characteristics for her: These included the inclusion of a Minerva bust in her self-portrait, comparisons with the poet Sappho and her identification with Hercules at the crossroads when she presents herself as a torn person between painting and music.

At the age of 16, the double-talented artist decided to paint, which led to this exciting image even decades later. In comparison, her self-portrayals as muses or priests of art turn out to be much more conventional, with the degree of migration between self-confident presentation and that of a woman "befitting" modesty being exceptionally good. Her (ageless) beauty should be read as a symbol of her inner values, her gentleness, her wisdom, her morals and as a metaphor for the beauty of painting. In comparison, her self-portrayals as muses or priests of art turn out to be much more conventional, with the degree of migration between self-confident presentation and that of a woman "befitting" modesty being exceptionally good. Her (ageless) beauty should be read as a symbol of her inner values, her gentleness, her wisdom, her morals and as a metaphor for the beauty of painting. In comparison, her self-portrayals as muses or priests of art turn out to be much more conventional, with the degree of migration between self-confident presentation and that of a woman “befitting” modesty exceptionally well. Her (ageless) beauty should be read as a symbol of her inner values, her gentleness, her wisdom, her morals and as a metaphor for the beauty of painting.¹

Angelika Kauffmann, Self-portrait with the bust of Minerva, around 1784, oil on canvas, 93 x 76.5 cm, Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur, deposit of the Gottfried Keller Foundation, Federal Office of Culture, Bern © / Photo: Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur.

The fact that the artist, who was a subject of the Bregenzerwald due to the origin of her father, was portrayed in this traditional costume, probably shows the homeland attachment of the internationally traveled and successful woman: "Self-Portrait in Bregenzerwald Costume" (1781) stands out clearly from the self-portraits elegant, partly antique clothing. She rarely shows up with the attributes of her profession, easel, palette and brush. Instead, Angelika Kauffmann preferred to represent herself with a drawing pen. With this, according to Kauffmann expert and curator Bettina Baumgärtel, emphasized "the importance of disegno within your own creative process"² .

Angelika Kauffmann, Self-portrait with drawing pen, around 1768, oil on canvas, 60.8 x 43.4 cm, private collection, © private collection / photo: AKRP, Justin Piperger.

Career of an artist

From 1759/60 to spring 1766, Angelika traveled to Italy with her father Johann Joseph Kauffmann. These six years can be seen as a decisive, formative phase in the artist's development. The aim was to study the Italian masters but also the ancient world and to get in touch with important sponsors and future clients. In order to finance the trip and continue to educate herself, the young painter made copies of Renaissance (Raphael) and Baroque (Carracci, Correggio, Rembrandt, Reni) paintings on her trip via Milan, Parma, Modena, Bologna to Florence.

In Rome Kauffmann turned to large-format history painting for the first time, which is impressively exhibited in Düsseldorf with "Bacchus discovers Ariadne on Naxos, abandoned by Theseus" (1764). Important initiators and teachers for the young painter were Pompeo Batoni, Gavin Hamilton and Giovanni Battista Piranesi, with whom she studied perspective. The encounter with works of antiquity shaped her taste in exactly the same way that she could not be prevented from drawing illicit male nude models. In 1764, Angelika Kauffmann created two portraits that suddenly made her internationally famous: that of the English actor David Garrick (1764, The Burghley House Collection) and that of the famous scholar Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1764, Kunsthaus Zürich). The high profile of the portrayed was transferred to the creator of her portraits, which she knew how to use for herself. She transferred the portrait of Winckelmann to an etching and exhibited the Garrick portrait in London in 1765 in order to introduce herself there before her arrival.

Angelika Kauffmann, Portrait of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, 1764, Kunsthaus Zürich, Legat Dr. Meyer-Ochsner, 1871. © Kunsthaus Zürich / Photo Inken M. Holubec

Kauffmann's histories after Homer, English history and Shakespeare

"Cleopatra decorates the grave of Marcus Antonius" (around 1769/70) or "Eleanora sucks poison out of her husband's wound, King Edward I" (1776) are just two paintings in the Düsseldorf exhibition that convey Angelika Kauffmann's wish, to be recognized as a history painter. Shortly after her arrival in London, the aspiring artist opened her first own studio at the age of 24. From then on, if portrait painting was a means of earning a living, she opened herself to ancient materials and English history (especially Anglo-Saxon times) and literature. Without knowing the sources or having read the stories, the pictorial themes are hardly accessible. Angelika Kauffmann thus belonged to a small group of artists who also wanted to establish history painting in England. However, only a few clients supported these efforts with purchases. However, the majority of the orders included portraits.

Angelika Kauffmann, Cleopatra decorates the grave of Marcus Antonius, around 1769/70, oil on canvas, 126.5 x 101.7 cm, The Burghley House Collection © The Burghley House Collection, Stamford / Photo: AKRP, Inken Holubec.

Angelika Kauffmann, Portrait of the impromptu virtuoso Teresa Bandettini-Landucci as muse, 1794, oil on canvas, 128.2 x 93.6 cm, Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, legacy Werner G. Linus Müller © Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf / photo: Horst Kolberg- ARTOTHEK.

To popularize history in London, Angelika Kauffmann developed from large to medium or small format in the 1770s, with the topics becoming increasingly sensitive. The re-performances of William Shakespeare's plays - 1764 was celebrated under David Garrick's 200th birthday - led to the Shakespeare Renaissance, in which Kauffmann participated with at least 20 pictures. Engraver and publisher John Boydell reproduced large-format reproductions in his Shakespeare Gallery, which he sold in portfolio volumes (although not very successfully). One of the happiest inventions by Kauffmann in this context is the picture "Die irre Marie" (1777) from Laurence Sternes cult book "Yoricks sensitive journey through France and Italy" from 1768. Marie, who has gone mad from unhappy love, sits on a stone in a melancholy state, accompanied by her loyal dog and a flute. When Kauffmann exhibited the painting in the Royal Academy of Arts in 1777, it became the epitome of the suffering of a virtuous, beautiful soul, as the curator points out.

Founding member of the Royal Academy of Arts

36 artists, including 34 artists and the two artists Angelika Kauffmann and Mary Moser, founded the Royal Academy of Arts as the first official art academy in Great Britain on December 14, 1768. The academic artists are committed to modern history painting. On behalf of the Royal Academy, Kauffmann created four ceiling paintings for the lecture hall in Somerset House, which had been built for the royal academy: "Invention [Inventions]", "Drawing [Design]", "Composition [Composition]" and "Color [Coloring]“ emerged from 1778 and were completed before May 1780.

Angelica Kauffman, Invention, 1778-80, ceiling painting, oil on canvas, horizontal oval, 126 x 148.5 cm, Royal Academy of Arts, London © Royal Academy of Arts, London / Photo: John Hammond.

Angelica Kauffman, Over the rainbow: Colour [Coloring], 1778-80, ceiling painting, oil on canvas, horizontal oval, 130 x 149.5 cm, Royal Academy of Arts, London © Royal Academy of Arts, London / Photo: John Hammond.

Angelika Kauffmann had early friendship with Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), director of the academy and most famous portrait painter in London. When she probably portrayed him in the summer of 1766, she placed Daniele da Volterra's bust of Michelangelo next to him. The stack of books and magazines on the table makes Reynolds appear as a well-read and busy thinker: "The Traveler" (1764) by his friend Oliver Goldsmith, the periodicals "The Rambler" and "The Idler" and above all the influential font "A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful ”by Edmund Burke (1757). In January 1767 the painter sold the portrait to Lady Spencer, with which she worked her way into the first ranks of the London portrait painters.

Fashionable portraits

The success of Angelika Kauffmann as a portrait painter essentially depends on her skill, more natural-looking portraits with a little narrative [ historicizing portrait] and to combine the idealization that supports decorum. Members of the nobility, the gentry and the bourgeoisie were depicted in antique costumes, including Augusta Friederike Luise, Duchess of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Princess of Great Britain, with Prince Charles George Augustus (before February 10, 1767). Kauffmann received Turkish fashion including the first trousers for women like Van-Dyck fashion (also: Spanish fashion). Many of the women chose Angelika Kauffmann as their portrait artist because she had established herself as a "fashion designer" and was able to imitate different fabrics with virtuosity. The portrait of "Charles Brudenell-Bruce, later 1st Marquess of Ailesbury, in Van Dyck costume" (1795) is a late example of the fashion initiated by Kauffmann, to be portrayed in the manner and attire of the baroque master. Alongside Reynolds and George Romney, Angelika Kauffmann was one of the most popular portraitists in London. The successful painter was able to repeat this call later in Rome.

New heroines and beautiful youngsters

In May 1782 Angelika Kauffmann returned to Rome. There she turned back to history painting, adding active heroines. The now married artist, who practically swapped roles with her husband, campaigned for a dissolution of the rigid gender norms in her pictures, but without breaking the role assignment. Kauffmann's loving heroines like Penelope, Gracchen mother Cornelia or Alkeste stand up for the preservation of humanity, family and morality, as the curator emphasizes in the catalog. Like her warlike colleagues in the pictures of the Frenchman Jacques-Louis David, Kauffmann's protagonists are also willing to sacrifice their lives. However, they are about love.

The age of sensitivity also saw new forms of behavior by men, who were now allowed to show feelings. The youthful figures in Kauffmann's pictures must be interpreted as the ideal of a beautiful soul in a beautiful body, as Johann Joachim Winckelmann had made it hopeful in the term “ideal beauty”. With her emotional interpretations of antique fabrics, the painter also made men bear "female" affects and preferred to portray them as androgynous beings.

Angelika Kauffmann, Ganymede watering the eagle of Jupiter, 1793, oil on canvas, 51.5 x 62 cm, Vorarlberg museum, Bregenz © Vorarlberg museum, Bregenz / photo: AKRP, Markus Tretter.

Successes in Rome

Kauffmann often let her female models slip into mythological and literary roles and thus contributed to the nobility of those portrayed. In the context of these portraits, Kauffmann developed the special type of "attitude portrait" (tree harness), as it appears in the portraits of "Emma, Lady Hamilton, as a comic muse" (December 1791) and the "impromptu virtuoso Teresa Bandettini Landucci as a muse" (1794) shows. Friends of Kauffmann's artists meet the audience as if on theater stages, which represents a new image of the artistically active woman in the late 19th century. The portraits were already interpreted as a group of muses at the time of their creation, as the women liked to be immortalized as Ceres, Calliope or Erato in the painter's salon. Angelika Kauffmann performed in Rome as the "tenth muse".

When Angelika Kauffmann returned to Rome, she found a favorable situation in the Eternal City. Anton Raphael Mengs died in 1779, Pompeo Batoni was over 70 years old and former competitors such as Nathaniel Dance had long since returned home. With the help of England's unofficial diplomatic representative in Rome, Thomas Jenkins, Kauffmann continued to have good access to English travelers on the Grand Tour, with increasing numbers of Italian, French, Polish and Scandinavian clients turning to Europe's most successful artist. Although she continued to paint historical pictures with antique subjects, she increasingly opened up to the religious picture. The portrait "Joseph Johann Graf Fries with Canovas Theseus and Minotaurus" (1787) shows the Viennese nobleman with his most recent acquisition in the background. The rising star Antonio Canova was one of Kauffmann's good friends. It was he who organized her pompous funeral in 1807.

Angelika Kauffmann in Düsseldorf

The exhibition “Angelica Kauffman Artist, Superwoman, Influencer” in the Museum Kunstpalast presents a highly inventive virtuoso with a brush. The chronologically hanged show not only brings important works by the Austrian-Swiss artist to Düsseldorf, but also skilfully introduces the distinctly feminine world of Kauffmann. The fact that she was living in the age of sensitivity made the audience open to her new forms of portraying heroines and young men. Even though she could never give up portrait painting as a living, she conquered new means of expression such as the fashionable portrait and the "attitude portrait" and thus changed the expectations of the genre. Curator Bettina Baumgärtel, the world's leading expert, provides a concise introduction to the life and work of Kauffmann with an exhibition and accompanying catalog.

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