Attributed to Angelica Kauffmann, R.A.

New York, Colnaghi, 7 - 30 May 1998; and London, Colnaghi, 10 June - 11 July 1998, no. 25.

Old Master Paintings, exhibition catalogue, New York/London, Colnaghi, 1998, cat. no. 25, reproduced in colour (as a set of three, along with other two showing The Judgement of Paris and Cupid leading Paris to Helen);
B. Baumgärtel, Angelika Kauffmann, exhibition catalogue, Düsseldorf, Kunstmuseum, 15 November 1998 - 24 January 1999; Munich, Haus der Kunst, 5 February - 18 April 1999; and Chur, Bündner Kunstmuseum, 8 May - 11 July 1999, p. 180 (as Attributed to Antonio Zucchi).

The canvas support is stable and there are no apparent damages to the paper. tHe paint surface is in very good condition with restoration limited to the sky and here only in the shape of sporadic retouchings, such as to the area immediately around the leftmost figure's head, and in the sky above the harpist. The sky, in any case, was clearly painted thinly anyway. The painting has been recently cleaned and varnished and is ready to hang. Sold with a 19th century gilt frame.
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This painting originally formed part of a series with two - possibly more - works of similar format: The Judgement of Paris and Cupid leading Paris to Helen. These paintings almost certainly formed part of a larger decorative scheme, perhaps for a drawing-room or a boudoir, and this seems bourne out by their medium (oil on paper laid on canvas). This is typical of Kauffmann's working method and, according to Boulton, this technique allowed "... the lady artist to paint her decorative works in her own studio"¹and the finished product would then be laid on canvas and pasted into position.

It is tempting to connect this canvas, and its two other companion pieces, to a project at Hare Hall which is described by W. Angus: "...in the smaller drawing room, which is in the centre of the House, are six charming pictures by Angelica Kauffmann, of the Triumph of Love".²  The house had been built for J.A. Wallinger by James Paine in 1769-70 and the interior decoration done presumably around the same time. Angus' description of their subject matter certainly seem to correspond, and the sequence of numbers on the reverse of the three Colnaghi canvases (of which this is one) indicate that the series was incomplete, and could easily have consisted of a further three canvases.

An attribution to Angelica Kauffmann has been proposed by Dr. Wendy Wassyng Roworth, after recent inspection of the painting in the original. Dr. Wassyng Roworth considers the painting to date from Kauffmann's English period. Dr. Bettina Baumgärtel, however, after seeing this and the other two ex-Colnaghi paintings in the original, tentatively attributed the works to Antonio Zucchi on grounds of style.³


1. Quoted in Lady V. Manners & G.C. Williamson, Angelica Kauffmann, RA, Her Life and Her Works, London 1924, p. 131.
2. W. Angus, The Seats of the Nobility and Gentry..., London 1787-1815.
3. See Baumgärtel, under Literature, reproducing the other two Colnaghi paintings on p. 181, figs. 112 and 113.