Laura Gascoigne

Insipid show of a weak painter: Angelica Kauffman, at the Royal Academy, reviewed

The artist's heroines are completely characterless, with no visible musculature

‘Self-portrait at the Crossroads between the Arts of Music and Painting’, 1794, by Angelica Kauffman. © National Trust Images / John Hammond  
issue 23 March 2024
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  • Angelica Kauffman

    Royal Academy of Arts, until 30 June

Angelica Kauffman’s funeral in Rome in 1807 was designed by her friend Canova on the model of Raphael’s. The corpse of ‘the great Woman, the always illustrious holy and most pious… was accompanied to the Church by two very numerous Brotherhoods… followed by the rest of the Academicians & Virtuosi who carried in triumph two of her Pictures’.

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