Self portrait of the artist hesitating between the arts of music and painting

Kauffmann, Angelica (1741-1807)


Item type:
painting
Date of creation:
1794
Height:
147.0 cm  (57 7/8 in.)
Width:
215.0 cm  (84 5/8 in.)
Technique / Medium:
oil on canvas

    Item location

  • National Trust (United Kingdom)
    Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire[Museum inv. no.: 960079]

Description

The artist depicts herself apparently unable to choose definitively between the personifications of her profession as a painter, which was traditionally a male dominated field (the figure of Painting points to a far away temple, symbolising the difficulty of her journey), and a career devoted to the easier and more traditionally feminine art of Music. Another version, dated 1792, is in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow.

People as subjects

Kauffmann, Angelica (1741-1807)

Iconclass

48C510
'Pictura', symbolic representations, allegories and emblems ~ painting; 'Pittura' (Ripa)
48C70
'Musica', symbolic representations, allegories and emblems ~ music; 'Musica'(Ripa)
48C513
portrait, self-portrait of painter

Musical works

illegible music notation
in the hand of the personification of music

RIdIM images


Image URLs

image link 1
Art UK
image link 3
National Trust

RIdIM record id

2989

Data provider