DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66024#0049
EARLY LIFE 13
devout Catholics, and this old man, whose advice was so useful at the moment,
had known Angelica from her childhood.
It is stated that she confided to him the doubts and scruples agitating her
mind, and asked his advice. He strongly recommended her to continue her
work as a painter, and he pointed out the special difficulties for a Catholic
that surrounded the life of an actor. The stage was then in an unsatis-
factory condition, and actors were regarded, not only as of an inferior class, but
subject to certain responsibilities and regulations, which would surely have
prevented her from attending at Mass, and would very likely have gradually
drawn her away from the teachings of her faith. It was a difficult moment,
and for a while one of much indecision. Angelica had become a popular
personage, but was obtaining comparatively small sums for her pictures,
while Kauffmann himself earned but little, and what he had, he spent very
rapidly. The temptation was a severe one, but it was gradually put aside,
and eventually Angelica decided that she would adopt the profession of painting
in preference to that of music, and that she would visit other galleries, where
she could study the works of the great masters, and endeavour to fit herself
in every possible way for success.
As has been pointed out, she commemorated the difficulty she had in making
her final choice between the arts of music and painting in an allegorical picture,
which she called “ A Female Figure allured by Music and Painting.” This
she produced in 1760,1 and made several copies of it, one of which she sent
to Schopfer at Munich, as late as 1802, and he copied it in chalk.
She and her father then left Milan for Parma, where she diligently studied
the works of Correggio. Thence they went on to Bologna, and so to Florence,
where they arrived in June, 1762.
Angelica is also said to have visited Piacenza en route, and Cremona. In
Florence, she at once met with difficulties with regard to work in the galleries.
The students objected to her presence; and were inclined to resent it in very
unpleasant fashion; but, by making use of the introductions she carried with her,
Angelica was enabled at last to have a separate apartment devoted to her, and
there she laboured incessantly, copying the principal pictures either in pencil,
crayon, or oil, and working exceedingly hard, it is said, from dawn till sunset.
She was always an accurate copyist, and her paintings created some attention,
so that she had several offers for them, but she was not desirous of selling them,
wishing to retain them by her for reference. A certain number of rapid copies
she did, however, sell, and by such means sustained herself and her father.
For several months she worked in Florence, and then left for Rome, where
she arrived in January, 1763.2
1 See Appendix II under Lord St. Oswald.
2 That Angelica Kauffmann was in Rome in 1763 we have definite proof in the MS. list
of visitors to the city which Richard Hayward made on the fly-leaf of a catalogue, and which
reads thus : “ Miss Anglica Coffeman (sfc) arriv’d at Rome from Florence, 1763.”
We are indebted to Mrs. Finberg for this important note.
devout Catholics, and this old man, whose advice was so useful at the moment,
had known Angelica from her childhood.
It is stated that she confided to him the doubts and scruples agitating her
mind, and asked his advice. He strongly recommended her to continue her
work as a painter, and he pointed out the special difficulties for a Catholic
that surrounded the life of an actor. The stage was then in an unsatis-
factory condition, and actors were regarded, not only as of an inferior class, but
subject to certain responsibilities and regulations, which would surely have
prevented her from attending at Mass, and would very likely have gradually
drawn her away from the teachings of her faith. It was a difficult moment,
and for a while one of much indecision. Angelica had become a popular
personage, but was obtaining comparatively small sums for her pictures,
while Kauffmann himself earned but little, and what he had, he spent very
rapidly. The temptation was a severe one, but it was gradually put aside,
and eventually Angelica decided that she would adopt the profession of painting
in preference to that of music, and that she would visit other galleries, where
she could study the works of the great masters, and endeavour to fit herself
in every possible way for success.
As has been pointed out, she commemorated the difficulty she had in making
her final choice between the arts of music and painting in an allegorical picture,
which she called “ A Female Figure allured by Music and Painting.” This
she produced in 1760,1 and made several copies of it, one of which she sent
to Schopfer at Munich, as late as 1802, and he copied it in chalk.
She and her father then left Milan for Parma, where she diligently studied
the works of Correggio. Thence they went on to Bologna, and so to Florence,
where they arrived in June, 1762.
Angelica is also said to have visited Piacenza en route, and Cremona. In
Florence, she at once met with difficulties with regard to work in the galleries.
The students objected to her presence; and were inclined to resent it in very
unpleasant fashion; but, by making use of the introductions she carried with her,
Angelica was enabled at last to have a separate apartment devoted to her, and
there she laboured incessantly, copying the principal pictures either in pencil,
crayon, or oil, and working exceedingly hard, it is said, from dawn till sunset.
She was always an accurate copyist, and her paintings created some attention,
so that she had several offers for them, but she was not desirous of selling them,
wishing to retain them by her for reference. A certain number of rapid copies
she did, however, sell, and by such means sustained herself and her father.
For several months she worked in Florence, and then left for Rome, where
she arrived in January, 1763.2
1 See Appendix II under Lord St. Oswald.
2 That Angelica Kauffmann was in Rome in 1763 we have definite proof in the MS. list
of visitors to the city which Richard Hayward made on the fly-leaf of a catalogue, and which
reads thus : “ Miss Anglica Coffeman (sfc) arriv’d at Rome from Florence, 1763.”
We are indebted to Mrs. Finberg for this important note.