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Drawing

1762-1766 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Between 1762 and 1766, Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807) worked in Florence and Rome, where she sketched not only art and antiquities but also many of the artists and antiquarians who flocked to Italy from across Europe to make the Grand Tour. Tourists often concluded their trip to Rome by commissioning a portrait. Her drawings include portraits of the artists Nathaniel Dance (1735-1811), Benjamin West (1738-1820), and art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768). The sketchbook also contains a series of landscape studies, preparatory studies for prints, drapery studies and drawings of hands and arms, capturing Kauffman’s ongoing experiments with light and gesture as she honed her skills. In 1800, the drawings entered the collection of G. Vallardi, a print dealer in Milan who was an active patron of neoclassical art. Vallardi pasted the various sized drawings into a bound volume. His collector’s mark appears on almost all the drawings except for numbers 92, 94, 103, 108, 130-136, which are unlikely to be by Kauffman.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
pencil, black and coloured chalks, ink and wash
Brief description
Angelica Kauffmann
Page from a sketch book: No. 51 Man seated reversed in a chair [Probably Benjamin West]
Chalk
Sketchbook is E.345 to 481-1927.
Physical description
140 pages of buff paper with gilt edges, with 137 drawings on laid paper pasted in, bound in blue cloth, 1762-66. Pencil, black and coloured chalks, ink. Binding: 29 x 38,2 cm; page: 28 x 36,8 cm.
Dimensions
  • Length: 293mm (Closed album) (Note: Measured in Book Conservation measuring box. Landscape format)
  • Width: 388mm (closed album) (Note: Measured in Book Conservation measuring box. Landscape format)
  • Depth: 65mm (closed album) (Note: Measured in Book Conservation measuring box)
Object history
From the collection of G. Vallardi, Contessa Imeretinsky, B. Ceccato, and Vit. Mandl. These drawings were likely given or sold by Kauffman to Giuseppe Vallardi in 1800, when the artist was living in Rome towards the end of her long and eventful life. Vallardi, a print dealer in Milan who was an active patron of neoclassical art, pasted the various sized drawings into a bound volume. After passing through the collections of the Countess Imeretinsky, B. Ceccato, and Vit. Mandl, the volume was sold to the museum by F.R. Meatyard in 1927.
Summary
Between 1762 and 1766, Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807) worked in Florence and Rome, where she sketched not only art and antiquities but also many of the artists and antiquarians who flocked to Italy from across Europe to make the Grand Tour. Tourists often concluded their trip to Rome by commissioning a portrait. Her drawings include portraits of the artists Nathaniel Dance (1735-1811), Benjamin West (1738-1820), and art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768). The sketchbook also contains a series of landscape studies, preparatory studies for prints, drapery studies and drawings of hands and arms, capturing Kauffman’s ongoing experiments with light and gesture as she honed her skills. In 1800, the drawings entered the collection of G. Vallardi, a print dealer in Milan who was an active patron of neoclassical art. Vallardi pasted the various sized drawings into a bound volume. His collector’s mark appears on almost all the drawings except for numbers 92, 94, 103, 108, 130-136, which are unlikely to be by Kauffman.
Bibliographic references
  • Tobias G. Natter, ed. Angelika Kauffmann Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern, Vorarlberger Landesmuseum, Bregenz, 2007. ISBN 978 3 7757 1984 1 (English), 978 3 7757 1983 4 (German)
  • Peter Walch, 'An Early Neo-Classical Sketchbook by Angelica Kauffmann', The Burlington Magazine, February 1977, pp.98-111.
  • PP. 149-155 Roma en el Bolsillo, Madrid: Museo Ncional Del Prado, 2013. ISBN: 9788484802747.
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design and Department of Paintings, Accessions 1927, London: Board of Education, 1928.
  • Bettina Baumgartel, Angelica Kauffman, London: Royal Academy Publications, 2024
  • Bettina Baumgartel, Inken Holubec, Johannes Myssok, and Helen Valentine, Verrückt nach Angelika Kauffmann, Kunstpalast Düsseldorf/Royal Academy of Arts: London/Munich 2020, pp 68-69
Collection
Accession number
E.395-1927

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
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