Lot 43: - Angelica Kauffman, R.A. , 1741-1807 Portrait of Antonio Pietro Francesco Zucchi (1726-1795) oil on canvas

half length, seated holding a pen in his right hand, an extensive landscape beyond oil on canvas

measurements note 76 by 63 cm., 30 by 24 3/4 in.

Bregenz Vorarlberger Landesmuseum, Angelika Kauffman und ihre Zetgenossen, 1968, no. 8;
Konstanz Staedisches Museum, Angelika Kauffman/Marie Ellenreider, 1992, no.3;
Vaduz, Lichtensteinsche Stattliche Kunstsammlung, Hommage an Angelika Kauffman, 1992, np. 45;
Rome, Accademia Nazionale San Lucca, Angelika Kauffman e Roma, 1998, no. 21;
Bregenz Vorarlberger Landesmuseum, Angelika Kauffman, 2007, no. 154

B. Baumgartel, Der Raphael unter den Weibern; Leben und Wek Angelika Kauffmans und Marie Ellenreigers im Vergleich, 1992, p. 378

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION
In this intimate and touching portrait Angelica Kauffman portrays her husband. Dressed in travelling attire, captured at a moments repose, Zucchi gestures towards a distance building of which he appears to have been making a drawing.

Zucchi was born in Venice the son of Francesco Zucchi (1692-1764) an engraver. Zucchi's uncle and brother were also artists and in 1766 he and his brother moved to London commissioned to work for Robert Adam. As well as designing the frontispiece for The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1773, they became Adam's decorative painters. Their work still survives at Harewood House, Yorkshire, Home House, London and the decoration for Lansdowne House, now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Zucchi was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1770 and it was here that he became acquainted with the beautiful and talented artist Angelica Kauffman (she was one of only two women who were founder members of the Academy). On the 14th July 1781 they were married following which Zucchi took his new bride and her father to their home town of Bregenz in Switzerland where this portrait was painted.

This portrait demonstrates Kauffman's sensitivity and skill at capturing the character of an artist and makes an interesting comparison with her earlier self-portrait c. 1775-80 (sold Sotheby's London, 14 June 2002, lot 2 £421, 500). Also captured in a moment of contemplation and holding the attributes of their trade are her portraits of fellow artists for example, Joshua Reynolds, 1767 (The National Trust, Saltram House) and Antonio Canova, c. 1795-96 (Private Collection).