DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66024#0054
18 ANGELICA KAUFFMANN
Angelica Kauffman, R.A. With Her He had become acquainted at Rome,
& an attachment most sincere on His side grew out of it. They came to England
and were then pledged to each other to marry by every possible declaration.—
While He was in this state of confidence she witht. explanation or anything
preceding it shut Her door against Him. His distress was excessive, even to
a degree to quite unman Him in His expressions of grief. At that time he
resided in Tavistock row, Covent Garden, and practised His profession History
& Portrait Painting; and it was believed by many, that the views of Angelica
were then turned from Him to Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was induced by Her
personal accomplishments and Her talent in Painting, to pay much attention
to Her but probably never with any serious intention.”
There was another lover whom she might have accepted at this moment,
for there is a story of her being seen with Nathaniel Dance and another admirer
in a box in a theatre in Rome. J. T. Smith, in Nollekens and His Times, gives the
story, writing thus : “ When Angelica was at Rome previously to her marriage
she was ridiculously fond of displaying her person, and being admired; for
which purpose she one evening took her station in one of the most conspicuous
boxes of the Theatre, accompanied by Nathaniel Dance and another artist,
both of whom, as well as many others, were desperately enamoured of her.
Angelica, perhaps, might have recollected the remonstrance of Mrs. Peachum,
where she says :
Oh, Polly! you might have toy’d and kiss’d :
By keeping men off you keep them on.1
However, while she was standing between her two beaux, and finding an arm
of each most lovingly embracing her waist, she contrived, whilst her arms
were folded before her on the front of the box over which she was leaning, to
squeeze the hand of both, so that each lover concluded himself beyond all
doubt the man of her choice.” Whether this story is true does not very
much matter, but the fact that it was narrated shows us that Angelica was in
those days an accomplished coquette, and had not the least objection to her
name being associated with those of quite different persons, or in the manner
of a flirtation. She was not, however, a person of strong emotions, and was
by nature ambitious. She had resolved, when she married, to marry well,
to obtain wealth and position, but, as it will be seen later on, the result so
carefully prepared for was not by any means satisfactory.
Oppermann, her German biographer, was always prejudiced against
English people, and although he refers to her various suitors in Rome, it is
possible that he did not intend to allude to Dance, but to some German or
Italian painter who was paying her attentions, and whose name has not been
preserved. Both he and Steinberg speak in cold, almost contemptuous terms
about the English nation, and especially about English artists, for they both of
1 In the Beggar’s Opera.
Angelica Kauffman, R.A. With Her He had become acquainted at Rome,
& an attachment most sincere on His side grew out of it. They came to England
and were then pledged to each other to marry by every possible declaration.—
While He was in this state of confidence she witht. explanation or anything
preceding it shut Her door against Him. His distress was excessive, even to
a degree to quite unman Him in His expressions of grief. At that time he
resided in Tavistock row, Covent Garden, and practised His profession History
& Portrait Painting; and it was believed by many, that the views of Angelica
were then turned from Him to Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was induced by Her
personal accomplishments and Her talent in Painting, to pay much attention
to Her but probably never with any serious intention.”
There was another lover whom she might have accepted at this moment,
for there is a story of her being seen with Nathaniel Dance and another admirer
in a box in a theatre in Rome. J. T. Smith, in Nollekens and His Times, gives the
story, writing thus : “ When Angelica was at Rome previously to her marriage
she was ridiculously fond of displaying her person, and being admired; for
which purpose she one evening took her station in one of the most conspicuous
boxes of the Theatre, accompanied by Nathaniel Dance and another artist,
both of whom, as well as many others, were desperately enamoured of her.
Angelica, perhaps, might have recollected the remonstrance of Mrs. Peachum,
where she says :
Oh, Polly! you might have toy’d and kiss’d :
By keeping men off you keep them on.1
However, while she was standing between her two beaux, and finding an arm
of each most lovingly embracing her waist, she contrived, whilst her arms
were folded before her on the front of the box over which she was leaning, to
squeeze the hand of both, so that each lover concluded himself beyond all
doubt the man of her choice.” Whether this story is true does not very
much matter, but the fact that it was narrated shows us that Angelica was in
those days an accomplished coquette, and had not the least objection to her
name being associated with those of quite different persons, or in the manner
of a flirtation. She was not, however, a person of strong emotions, and was
by nature ambitious. She had resolved, when she married, to marry well,
to obtain wealth and position, but, as it will be seen later on, the result so
carefully prepared for was not by any means satisfactory.
Oppermann, her German biographer, was always prejudiced against
English people, and although he refers to her various suitors in Rome, it is
possible that he did not intend to allude to Dance, but to some German or
Italian painter who was paying her attentions, and whose name has not been
preserved. Both he and Steinberg speak in cold, almost contemptuous terms
about the English nation, and especially about English artists, for they both of
1 In the Beggar’s Opera.