Portrait of a Lady
- Artist: Angelica Kauffman
- Date: c.1775
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 792 x 635 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Portrait of a Lady” by Angelica Kauffman. It’s an oil on canvas painted around 1775, a small but striking study of a woman in classicising robes. She sits in a chair, her left elbow resting on a plinth that holds a towering column. In her hands she cradles a scroll and a writing instrument, and on the table next to her sits a book and a statue of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom. Those details point to learning and literary ambition, traits Kauffman celebrated in her portraiture. Her confident gaze, direct and unflinching, invites the viewer into that intellectual world.
Kauffman was a Swiss‑born, Italian‑trained painter who became one of the first female founders of the Royal Academy in 1768. By the 1770s she was so popular that one contemporary quipped the “whole world is Angelica‑mad.” In portraits like this she helped shape an image of feminine creativity and intellect, reflecting the strong network of women – patrons, artists, writers – that supported her career. Even though we don’t know who the sitter is, the painting’s symbols suggest she was part of the vibrant circle of 18th‑century women intellectuals, perhaps a Bluestocking or a budding scholar. The work was presented by Mrs M Bernard in 1967, bringing this slice of history into our hands today.
See it in person
Portrait of a Lady is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
