Person

Kauffmann, Angelika (30.10.1741 - 05.11.1807)

Austrian painter.

Angelika Kauffmann was born in 1741, the daughter of a portrait painter. In 1752, her family moved to Como, where she began drawing at an early age. In Milan, she received tuition in painting and music, and her parents taught her German, Italian, English and French. She learnt to paint from her father and produced her first self-portrait in 1753. From 1754 to 1757, the family travelled to Modena and Reggio. Following her mother’s death, Kauffmann lived with her father in Schwarzenberg in the Bregenz Forest, where she also produced her first works. During the restoration of the church, she painted 13 half-length figures of the Apostles. In 1760, she and her father returned to Italy, where Kauffmann studied classical antiquity and the Renaissance. From 1763 onwards, she remained in Rome and painted numerous portraits. Her most famous painting was the portrait of Johann Joachim Winckelmann. Kauffmann’s portraits of English travellers enabled the pair to undertake further journeys to Naples. In 1765, she became a member of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. She and her father subsequently travelled to London. Alongside Mary Moser, Kauffmann was the only woman among the 34 founding members of the Royal Academy of Arts. She later returned to Rome, where she died in 1807.
Her most significant works include her portraits and numerous historical paintings.

Her own portrait, painted by Joshua Reynolds, served as the model for the image on the 100-Schilling banknote issued in 1969.

https://d-nb.info/gnd/118721224

https://term.museum-digital.de/md-de/persinst/399

https://viaf.org/viaf/95148968

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG33532

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q123098

https://ikmk.smb.museum/ndp/person/17536

05.08.2026