A young woman

A young woman wearing a loose gown around her waist which leaves her torso bare, with her hair dressed up with a strip of material, sitting leaning against rocks on the left, turned away from the viewer with her head in profile.

Etching, lettered below the image 'Angelica Kauffman fec:t 1770'.  

Example of the first state of two, before the added aquatint made by John Boydell.

A fine impression, printed on contemporary laid paper, with margins, very good conditions.

According with David Alexander, Angelica Kauffman was making etchings from 1762. Although at first she seems to have executed them for private distribution, she later advertised a number priced for a relatively exclusive market. A notice appeared in the Public Advertiser on the 25th and 26th March 1774 of 'Twenty Etchings, Designed and Engraved by Angelica Kauffman' which could be bought for a guinea at her house in Golden Square or 'at the Printsellers'.

This appears to have encouraged the production of others: another notice in the same journal appeared on the 23rd February 1776, for two larger and more finished prints, priced even higher, at ten shillings: “Two Prints from Original Pictures by Guido and Angelica Kauffman; The one representing St Peter and St Paul, from the Zampieri Collection at Bologna, the other the Holy Family in the Collection of the Earl of Warwick. To be had at Angelica Kauffman's House in Golden Square, and at the Print-Shops”.

In the same year she also published others, which she produced with Giuseppe Zucchi: 'Astronomy', 'Simplicity' and 'Calypso Calling Heaven and Earth'.

Kauffman sold her plates in preparation to leaving England in 1781. The majority were bought by Boydell, who re-issued them, some with added aquatint, in 1780-81. John P Thompson appears to have acquired some plates from Boydell and reissued them in 1804. The aquatint is generally rather faded in this state. [cf. Alexander pp. 150-1, 171].

Bibliografia

Wendy Wassyng Roworth e David Alexander, Angelica Kauffmann: a continental artist in Georgian England, Londra, 1992; Andresen 1864-78, Der Deutsche Peintre-Graveur ... von dem letzten Drittel des 16 Jahrhunderts bis zum Schluss des 18 Jahrhunderts (27.I)