Popular literature (selection)

To this day, popular biographies of and novels about Angelica Kauffman are widely read and have undoubtedly led to the artist’s fame.

Many of the publications, such as that by Angela Goodden, are well-researched and based on fact. However, a large number of the writings paint a clichéd picture of the artist and turn her life story into a tragic love story. Old legends and anecdotes about her are cited and embellished; new ones are invented. In order to achieve high sales figures on the books, the artist’s supposed love life is interpreted in amateur psychological manner without leading to any new insights.

These biographies usually focus intensively on the topic of marriage fraud, which sometimes accounts for as much as one third of the entire text. In fact, the case of marriage fraud in question was a very minor episode in the sixty-six years of the artist’s life. The later stages of her life are also often examined with a tunnel view of her amorous relationships. The question most frequently discussed is whether or not Angelica Kauffman had an affair with Goethe.

Gabrielle Alioth: Der prüfende Blick. Roman über Angelica Kauffmann, München 2007

Angelica Goodden: Miss Angel. The Art and World of Angelica Kaufman, Eighteenth-Century Icon, London 2005

Adeline Hartcup: Angelica. The Portrait of an Eighteenth-century Artist, London und Melbourne und Toronto 1954

Gabriele Katz: Angelika Kauffmann. Künstlerin und Geschäftsfrau, Stuttgart 2012

Dorothy Moulton Mayer: Angelica Kauffmann, a biography, Gerrads Cross 1972

Ursula Naumann: Geträumtes Glück. Angelica Kauffmann und Goethe, Frankfurt/M. 2007

Siegfried Obermeier: Die Muse von Rom. Angelika Kauffmann und ihre Zeit, Frankfurt/M. 1987 (2. Auflage „Ein Weib mit ungeheurem Talent“, Düsseldorf 1998)

Hilde Passow-Kernen: Angelika Kauffmann. Ein Künstlerroman des 18. Jahrhunderts, Zürich 1942

Françoise Pitt-Rivers: Le Destin d’Angelica Kauffmann. Une Femme Peintre dans L’Europe du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris 2009

Jutta Rebmann: Angelika Kauffmann. Gefeierte Malerin im Europa des 18. Jahrhunderts. Biographischer Roman, Mühlacker 1994, 2. Aufl. 1998

J. D. Sauerländer: Angelika Kaufmann. Ein historischer Roman in zwei Bänden, Frankfurt/M. 1860

Samuel A. Jr. Schreiner: Angelica. A novel, New York 1978

Irmgard Smith-Dörrenberg: Angelika Kauffmann. Goethes Freundin in Rom, Wien 1968

Walter Shaw Sparrow: Angelica Kauffman’s Amazing Marriage, in: Connoisseur, Bd. XCII, 386, 1933, S. 242-248

Anne Isabella [Ritchie] Thackeray: Miss Angel, in: Cornhill Magazine, London 1875

Armand Francois Léon de Wailly: Angelica Kauffmann. Historischer Roman in zwei Bänden, Paris 1832, 2. Aufl. 1859

Simona Weller: Ritratto di Angelica, Cava de’ Tirreni 1998 (dt. Übers. Die zehnte Muse. Das Leben der Angelika Kauffmann, übers. v. Christel Till-Galliani, München 1999)