Works on demand
Edited by Bettina Baumgärtel
The Pensive Muse mouning at the Urn – continued
Having reported on the rediscovery of the painting in 2020 and hoped to examine the original soon, we would now like to continue the story: the owner of the painting contacted the BBC to feature it on the programme ‘Fake and Fortune’. At the BBC’s request, the AKRP was finally able to examine the painting in London in April 2025.
The conclusion: the painting can, with some reservation but in all likelihood, be assessed as the original work. However, as parts of the painting are missing or have been significantly altered, the assessment is not entirely straightforward; we have therefore classified it as ‘attributed to A. Kauffman’.
We gave an extended interview for the BBC film broadcast in 2025, from which a few sentences were featured in the programme.
As the research brought to light interesting details about the painting’s provenance and the painting technique, it is well worth watching this fascinating film.
Citation note:
Baumgärtel, Bettina: Angelica Kauffman – Works on Demand, in: Angelika Kauffmann Research Project – online, https://www.angelika-kauffmann.de/en/works-on-demand/ [add date of access here]
In 2020, a painting appeared on the American art market that we can only surmise is a long-sought-after original by Angelica Kauffman.
We know that Angelica Kauffman painted a work depicting this scene shortly after her arrival in London. It was last published in 1924 in the monograph by Manners and Williamson, *Angelica Kauffmann R.A.*, as a poor-quality black-and-white reproduction; since then, it has been considered lost.
Starting in 1766, Kauffman rented an apartment from Robert and Mary Home. Their daughter, Anne Home, became known as a poet. Anne hosted a salon frequented by the inner circle of emancipated women, the Bluestockings, including Elizabeth Carter, Mary Delany, and Elizabeth Montagu. In 1764, she became engaged, and in 1771, she married John Hunter, a well-known surgeon.
When General Stanwix’s daughter tragically drowned in a shipwreck while crossing to Ireland, Anne Home wrote the poem “To the Memory of Miss Susanne Stenwix”:
„On the dark Bosom of the faithless Main, –
Where stormy Winds and roaring Tempests reign,
Far from her native Fields and friendly Skies,
In early Death´s Cold Arms FIDELIA lies. –
Ah! spare to tell (for she is now no more)
What Virtue, Beauty, Sweetness, charm´d before:
Here let the pensive Muse in silence Mourn,
Where friendship to her Name has ras´d [sic: rais’d] the sacred Urn.”
Angelica Kauffman, who became friends with Anne Home, subsequently created a painting that ushered in a new artistic tradition. The depiction of the muse of friendship tenderly embracing the urn disregards the circumstances of the young woman’s death. Rather, it is an allegorical memorial painting. In this way, the artist developed a visual language all her own for the sentimental cult of friendship, condensing the urn—a symbol of death—with the muse of friendship into a natural emblem of mourning friendship.
In 1767, the artist also transferred the depiction to an etching plate. The caption there quotes a poem by her friend, the writer Anne Home.
The newly discovered painting could be a sensational find. Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to examine the painting, which is currently located in the United States. The owner contacted the AKRP in 2020.
The AKRP team hopes to have the opportunity to examine the painting more closely, because if it is the original we have been searching for over 30 years, it could finally be added back to the artist’s body of work.
Citation note:
Baumgärtel, Bettina: Angelica Kauffman – Works on Demand, in: Angelika Kauffmann Research Project – online, https://www.angelika-kauffmann.de/en/works-on-demand/ [add date of access here]
It was a sensation
In 2014, the portrait of Anna Amalia, Duchess of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach, returned to Weimar. In the end of World War II it has been lost in Poland. When the painting was offered on the London art market in 2011, the auction house Sotheby’s first came in contact with the AKRP. Afterwards in May 2011 the Klassik Stiftung Weimar was informed. Lengthy negotiations finally led to a happy ending. The painting now hangs at its original location in the Roman House in Weimar on permanent loan.
During her Grand Tour to Italy, the Duchess lived in friendly relationship with Angelica Kauffman in Rome. From October 1788 onwards the Duchess was painted by the artist.
The AKRP Team has studied the image technologically and collected interesting details.
Citation note:
Baumgärtel, Bettina: Angelica Kauffman – Works on Demand, in: Angelika Kauffmann Research Project – online, https://www.angelika-kauffmann.de/en/works-on-demand/ [add date of access here]
