7/6/24
Angelica Kauffman
Royal Academy of Arts, London
1 March – 30 June 2024
It would not be an exaggeration to call this one of the most significant exhibitions in the history of the Royal Academy. Finally, 256 years on, Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807), one of the 36 artists – just two of whom were women (the other being her Swiss contemporary, Mary Moser) – to petition George III to found the Academy in 1768, is belatedly being honoured with a solo show. The exhibition, a victim of Covid (it was originally planned for 2020, and, although necessarily postponed in London, its second leg, at the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, took place between summer lockdowns), has been no mean feat for the tenacious curators – Bettina Baumgärtel (from the Kunstpalast, and also head of the Angelica Kauffman Research Project), Per Rumberg (from the National Gallery, London) and Annette Wickham (the Royal Academy’s Curator of Works on Paper) – to reassemble the 30 works, from, luckily, very supportive lenders, for the UK audience.
Read my full review here