KAUFMANN, ANGELICA. - Painter, born at Chur in the Grisons on 30 Oct. 1741, died in Rome on 5 Nov. 1807, one of the most interesting and significant figures in the artistic culture of her time.
Extremely precocious, in 1752 at Como she painted a portrait of Bishop Nevroni; in 1757 she collaborated with her father on the decoration of the parish church of Schwarzenberg. Then, after a journey through Italy and a stay of about three years in Rome, where she was made an academician of S. Luca, she went to London (1766-81).
Having returned to Italy, she was first in Venice and then in Rome, where the salon of her house in Via Sistina became one of the most famous in the city; there she received the leading figures of the Roman and foreign cultural world, including Goethe, A. Canova, and numerous princes, especially Germans, eager to have their portraits painted by her. In 1800 she painted the altarpiece for the parish church of Schwarzenberg, representing the Coronation of the Virgin. In general, however, her paintings, now in the principal public and private collections of Europe and America, are portraits and compositions on various secular subjects, painted in a delicate and light manner, recalling the typical eighteenth-century grace of colour, although in their schemes and poses they already appear directed towards Neoclassical taste.