WHAT?  Angelica Kauffman

WHERE?  The Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J OBD

WHEN?  Now until 30th June.

WHY GO?  To celebrate beauty.  In with the ‘in’ crowd’ of her day, Kauffman, who was born in Switzerland, educated in Italy, arrived in London in 1766 at the age of 25 and immediately found fame painting everyone who was anyone and was much in demand as an artist and woman of refinement.

Self portraits were her ‘calling card’ and since she was exceptionally cultured and beautiful herself, she quite naturally attracted others with cultivated taste and noble stature. 

This sumptuous exhibition includes notables like Emma, Lady Hamilton and even the great Joshua Reynolds himself, with whom she was on friendly terms and who undoubtedly helped her become a Founding Member of the RAA in 1768. 

It seems only fitting therefore that this tribute should be in her former ‘home’.  It’s said that Reynolds referred to her as Miss Angel and indeed there was malicious talk of improprieties, but gossips will gossip!

Such was her fame that her funeral in Rome was as spectacular as her glorious paintings of the rich and famous.

It was directed by the celebrated sculptor Canova with a Renaissance flourish, accompanied fittingly by her famous painting, Christ and the Samaritan Woman, which is one of many highlights in the exhibition.

A truly trail blazing woman, who started her artistic life as a child prodigy and died at the age of 66, leaving us all an impressive legacy to enjoy in this sumptuous show.

IN THE KNOW Lucky in talent but unlucky in love, Kauffman’s disastrous first marriage to ‘Count’ Frederick de Horn was annulled when she discovered he was a bigamist and fortune hunter.  Happily years later she found her soulmate, Italian painter Antonio Zucchi and together they created a cultural salon of artists, writers and musicians.