![Angelica Kauffman RA, Portrait of Emma, Lady Hamilton, as Muse of Comedy (detail) Angelica Kauffman RA, Portrait of Emma, Lady Hamilton, as Muse of Comedy (detail)](https://cloudinary.royalacademy.org.uk/royal-academy/image/upload/c_fill,cs_tinysrgb,dn_72,f_auto,fl_progressive.keep_iptc,w_1280,h_720,ar_16:9/spdzhzign60b0tnupwyx.jpg)
Angelica Kauffman
1 March - 30 June 2024
The Jillian and Arthur M. Sackler Wing of Galleries | Burlington House
Tues–Sun: 10am–6pm
Fri: 10am–9pm
Tickets £17
(including donation)
Friends of the RA go free
Angelica Kauffman RA was one of the most celebrated artists of the 18th century. In this major exhibition, we trace her trajectory from child prodigy to one of Europe's most sought-after painters.
Known for her celebrity portraits and pioneering history paintings, Angelica Kauffman helped to shape the direction of European art. She painted some of the most influential figures of her day – queens, countesses, actors and socialites – and she reinvented the genre of history painting by focusing largely on female protagonists from classical history and mythology.
This exhibition covers Kauffman’s life and work: her rise to fame in London, her role as a founding member of the Royal Academy and her later career in Rome where her studio became a hub for the city’s cultural life.
See paintings and preparatory drawings by Kauffman, including some of her finest self-portraits, her celebrated ceiling paintings for the Royal Academy’s first home in Somerset House, as well as history paintings of subjects including Circe and Cleopatra, and discover the remarkable life of the artist whom one of her contemporaries described as “the most cultivated woman in Europe”.
Download our large print guide.
#RAAngelicaKauffman
Supporters
Supported by
Christian Levett and Musée FAMM
With additional support from
Antigone Theodorou & Stefan Bollinger
The Glenbevan Trust
Kathryn Uhde
With additional support from
The International Music and Art Foundation
Rosemary Lomax-Simpson
The Dr. Lee MacCormick Edwards Charitable Foundation
David and Molly Lowell Borthwick
Gallery
Portrait of Emma, Lady Hamilton, as Muse of Comedy, 1791
Self-portrait of the Artist hesitating between the Arts of Music and Painting, 1794
Cleopatra Adorning the Tomb of Mark Antony, c. 1769–70
Self-portrait with Bust of Minerva, c. 1780–84
Design, 1780
Self-portrait in the Traditional Costume of the Bregenz Forest, 1781
![Angelica Kauffman RA, Portraits of Domenica Morghen and Maddalena Volpato as Muses of Tragedy and Comedy (detail) Angelica Kauffman RA, Portraits of Domenica Morghen and Maddalena Volpato as Muses of Tragedy and Comedy (detail)](https://cloudinary.royalacademy.org.uk/royal-academy/image/upload/c_fill,cs_tinysrgb,dn_72,f_auto,fl_progressive.keep_iptc,w_836,h_470,ar_16:9/ztrigoczgu2b1gdkhizc.jpg)
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Angelica Kauffman: Art History's Heroine
4 April 2024
Start here: Angelica Kauffman
24 January 2024
![Angelica Kauffman catalogue Angelica Kauffman catalogue](https://cloudinary.royalacademy.org.uk/royal-academy/image/upload/c_fill,cs_tinysrgb,dn_72,f_auto,fl_progressive.keep_iptc,w_836,h_470,ar_16:9/px9yotobovbsv835aiuj.jpg)
Buy the exhibition catalogue
Discover the extraordinary life and work of Angelica Kauffman in our exhibition catalogue.
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