91Èȱ¬

Historian Amanda Vickery explains that in the 18th and 19th centuries women faced challenges in being accepted as part of the ‘art establishment’. It was hard for them to be taken seriously as artists and hard for them to train. In 1768 the Royal Academy opened and made it easier for women to become part of the art establishment. But it did not make women artists equal to men. We see an engraving showing male founding members chatting in a room with two founding female members represented by portraits on the wall. This represents their lower status. The two female founding members were Mary Moser and Angelica Kauffman 1741-1807. We see portraits of the two women and we learn that whilst Moser painted flowers and was a favourite of the Queen, Kauffman wanted to master ‘History’ painting. This was difficult for a woman as it was thought only men should do this ‘serious’ work and to do ‘History’ painting well she would have to paint full male figures often with few clothes. But women were not allowed to paint nudes because of moral standards. This made it harder for her to be taken seriously as a ‘History’ painter.

We see several of Kauffman’s paintings and her sketch book shows us she studied the male form by looking at Roman and Greek statues and other people’s sketches. We are told Kauffman painted the emotional aspects of historical scenes to avoid people thinking she was trying to paint something only male artists should. This way she avoided criticism. We see 'Penelope Taking Down the Bow of Ulysses 1768' to show Kauffman painted classical historical scenes focused on females. In 'Farewell of Hector and Andromache 1768' Kauffman focused on the emotions of the warrior. Shots of decorated porcelain show how Kauffman used merchandising to make money and show her art to a mass market. Amanda Vickery praises Kauffman for making ‘History’ paintings at a time when most people did not think it was right for women to paint the male form.