During her fifteen years in England the Swiss painter Angelica Kauffman made a significant impact on British art, not least as one of the only two female founding members of the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1778 she was commissioned by the Academy to paint a set of four paintings to represent the 'Elements of Art' as expounded by its President, Sir Joshua Reynolds. These large ceiling paintings, now installed at Burlington House, show four female figures as Invention, Composition, Design and Colour. Accompanying a new exhibition of her paintings, this book charts Kauffman's artistic career in London. An introduction by the internationally renowned Kauffman scholar Bettina Baumgärtel is followed by an essay by Helen Valentine, Senior Curator at the RA, on the Elements series. The curator Annette Wickham writes on Kauffman's continued influence for contemporary artists, focusing on the installation created by the former RA Schools student Sarah Pickford in 2018. Exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in collaboration with the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf Accompanies an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 28 June-20 September 2020, which then travels to the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf.
