Classical Figures

Angelica Kauffman was one of the most admired painters in Europe during the late eighteenth century, among the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768, and a central figure in the Neoclassical movement in both Rome and London. This panel of Classical Figures from the 1770s exemplifies her characteristic approach to ancient subjects: gracefully composed groups of figures in Antique dress, their expressions and gestures conveying idealized emotions from ancient history or mythology. Kauffman's contribution to Neoclassicism was significant precisely because she feminized the movement's usually austere heroic imagery, giving it a lyrical tenderness that made it accessible and popular in domestic contexts. Her decorative panels were widely reproduced in print and applied to furniture and interior decoration, making her imagery among the most widely distributed of any European artist of the period.

Kauffman composes the figures with the graceful linearity that defines her mature Neoclassical style, the drapery falling in elegant folds derived from ancient sculpture. The palette is soft and harmonious — warm pink, gold, and cream tones — with none of the frigid severity of David's more austere Neoclassicism. Faces are idealized, expressions tender.