Kasturi took part in a one-week curatorial research micro-internship in December 2023, hosted by the University of Oxford National Trust Partnership team and co-supervised by National Trust.
Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807) was a Swiss painter and one of the most celebrated artists of the eighteenth-century. One of two female founders of the Royal Academy, Kauffman is known for having painted the portraits of numerous influential figures and for her captivating history paintings, depicting scenes from literature, history and classical mythology. Nine of her paintings are held across three National Trust properties in the south of England: six at Saltram in Devon, two at Stourhead in Wiltshire, and one at Petworth in West Sussex. As a curatorial research intern, my role focused on aiding the National Trust’s understanding of these paintings, including Kauffman’s choice of scenes, her literary sources and her use of artistic devices.
Kauffman was set apart from her contemporaries for a few reasons. She was considered a child prodigy and her portraits were in demand from when she was very young. Most woman artists in the eighteenth century would have been limited to portraiture, due to restrictions placed on women’s education which prevented them from taking on more highly regarded artistic genres. For Kauffman, however, portraiture was only the beginning. From a young age, Kauffman set out to achieve her ambition to become a recognised history painter. History painting was regarded as the ‘loftiest’ genre of painting. These paintings were intended to evoke feelings of awe and admiration in the viewer and to depict the bravery, refinement, or greatness of the subject. They would capture grand stories and dramatic, sweeping narratives in a still image. As such, the history painter was expected to have the most formal of artistic education in order to succeed. Though women were barred from formal artistic education, Kauffman did not shy away from this challenge. Instead, she set out to carve a space for herself in the European art scene. All nine of her paintings across Saltram, Stourhead and Petworth are examples of her history paintings.
Unlike her male counterparts, Kauffman usually chose to centre female protagonists in her history paintings. Whilst the focus of classical mythology tends to be on male heroes, Kauffman chose to emphasise the role of women in these stories. In many of her paintings, such as Penelope sacrificing to Minerva, Kauffman depicted women who demonstrated feminine virtues such a maternal love or marital fidelity. However, on digging deeper, we find that Kauffman’s paintings went beyond extolling feminine ideals. Her paintings demonstrate the influence of women over the narratives of ancient mythology. For example, her paintings of Penelope, wife of Ulysses, craft a narrative of the Odyssey that centres the actions of women in the domestic space and stresses Penelope’s agency, such as in refusing numerous suitors during Ulysses’ absence, or in safeguarding Ithaca alongside Euryclea and Minerva. Another example of Kauffman’s subversion of the genre is her depiction of Achilles dressed as a woman in Ulysses discovering Achilles. Here, Kauffman experiments with gendered ambiguity: Achilles’ confident pose as he wields a sword contrasts with his woman’s garb and feminine outward appearance. This perhaps reflects Kauffman’s own ambiguous position as a woman painter, wielding her paintbrush in male-dominated arena.
Kauffman’s paintings also extend outside of classical mythology. She was one of the first painters to depict scenes from British history, including Vortigern, King of Britain, enamoured with Rowena and Interview of Edgar and Elfrida, both held at Saltram. It was relatively uncommon at the time to depict scenes from British history, so she may have chosen this subject matter in order to set herself apart from her contemporaries and mould a niche for herself. Though she was not British, her position in the London art scene allowed her to respond to Sir Joshua Reynolds’ call for paintings depicting British history and to contribute to the rapid development of a British artistic tradition that took place over the eighteenth century. This is undoubtedly an important part of her legacy. Similarly, she contributed at least two paintings of scenes from Shakespeare’s plays to John Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery on Pall Mall, which opened at the end of the century. One such painting, Diomed and Cressida is now held at Petworth. As such, despite her Swiss origins, her upbringing in Italy and Austria and her lifelong links to Rome, she was a significant figure in the shaping of a British school of art at a crucial time.
It is clear from researching Kauffman’s paintings that she was determined and tenacious. She refused to be held back by restrictions placed on her gender, instead pursuing ambitious goals. Her skill as an artist is unmistakeable, but it is her shrewd decisions that allowed her to create a space for herself in a male-dominated environment. By centring the role of women and emphasising their agency in the narratives she depicted, she offered a fresh perspective and set herself apart from her contemporaries.
Kasturi Pindar is a postgraduate student in Modern British History, researching institutional forms of memory making through the lens of representations of transatlantic slavery in British museums.
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