Many women artists in the 18th century led successful careers but few enjoyed the international fame, professional recognition and business success earned by Angelica Kauffman. Known for her mastery of Neoclassical themes and intimate portraits of her high-ranking client-base, Kauffman worked throughout Europe with particularly lasting and impactful periods in both London and Rome. Her works are synonymous with the moneyed elite and the exported classicism popularised by the Grand Tour. While her entrepreneurial spirit won her commercial success, her large-scale, multi-figure history paintings earned her accolades within the academic circles in which she exhibited.

A. Kauffman was born on 30 October 1741 in Coire, Switzerland, and was a child prodigy in both music and painting. As a young teenager, A. Kauffman drew notice as an apprentice to her father, the painter and muralist Joseph Johann Kauffman (1707–1782), joining him to work on commissions and build her own network of patrons in Italy and Austria. In around 1758, A. Kauffman relocated to Italy, where she furthered her artistic ambitions, spending time in Venice and becoming a member of the prestigious Bolognese Academy as well as the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence and the Roman Accademia di San Luca.

While being a women barred her from participation in life drawing classes and other aspects of professional development open to her male counterparts, her Academic recognition allowed Kauffman expanded access to spaces and collections where she was able to copy the work of Renaissance masters and antique forms. This was a common mode of study for both men and women of the period and was a major influence on the development of A. Kauffman’s influential Neoclassical style, which shaped her exhibition of historical themes and her ability to paint large-scale figural works.

With encouragement from British contacts she met in Italy, the multilingual artist moved to London in 1766, remaining there as a fixture of exhibitions and salons for 15 years. A. Kauffman’s fame had preceded her to London, and her connections quickly enlarged her network of clients to include influential figures such as painter Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) as well as Princess Augusta, for whom she painted celebrated portraits in 1767. In 1768 A. Kauffman was admitted, alongside Mary Moser (1744–1819), as one of only two female founding members of the Royal Academy of Arts.

A shrewd entrepreneur, A. Kauffman capitalised on her fame, embracing technological advances, including techniques such as “mechanical painting”, which allowed her work to reach broad audiences through reproduction on all manner of domestic items and decorative surfaces, from snuffboxes and plates to furniture and ceiling panels. This venture was carried out in concert with her maintenance of a portrait studio and exhibition of grand historical canvases. Although she married twice, her second husband being fellow artist Antonio Zucchi (1726–1795), the men in her life never eclipsed her individual success and she notably maintained both independent management of her finances and her maiden name throughout her life. In 1781, A. Kauffman left London, eventually returning to Italy and spending the remainder of her life in Rome. There she continued to take commissions and host influential salons for Europe’s artistic elite, drawing crowds even in death with her canvases carried in procession during her elaborate 1807 funeral designed by friend and fellow artist Antonio Canova (1757–1822).