National Gallery Acquires Rare Angelica Kauffman History Painting
The National Gallery in London has added a major work by Angelica Kauffman (1741–1807) to its collection, bringing Achilles discovered among the Daughters of Lycomedes (1787–88) into public view for the first time at the museum. The acquisition is notable not only for the painting’s scale and subject, but also because it is the first work by Kauffman to enter a UK national collection in nearly two centuries.
The painting arrived as part of a gift from Dallas collectors Richard and Luba Barrett, who also donated Portrait of Louis Montchal (1885) by Ferdinand Hodler and Four Large Trees by Alexandre Calame. National Gallery director Gabriele Finaldi called the three works a generous addition, noting that the Kauffman is the first by the artist in the museum’s current collection.
Kauffman’s canvas turns to a scene from Greek myth in which Achilles, hidden by his mother Thetis among the daughters of Lycomedes on Skyros, is discovered and drawn toward the Trojan War. The artist shows him in a pink gown, sword in hand, at the instant his disguise begins to fail. The National Gallery describes the composition as one in which classical poses, scattered objects in the foreground, and a stage-like architectural setting heighten the drama.
The subject does not appear in Homer’s Iliad, which focuses on the war’s final days. Instead, Kauffman drew on Achilleid, a first-century CE text by Publius Papinius Statius. She is believed to have taken a particular interest in the theme during her years in London between 1766 and 1782, and she painted at least three versions of the scene. One was shown at the Royal Academy, where she stood as one of only two women among the founding members.
Technically, the newly acquired work is an oil study, or modello, for a 1789 painting now in the Scientific-Research Museum of the Academy of Arts of Russia in St. Petersburg. At nearly four feet square, it is unusually large and detailed for a study. It was commissioned by Catherine the Great by 1787 as a companion to another work in the Russian empress’s collection, Servius Tullius as a Child Asleep beneath the Miraculous Flame (1783–85).
The acquisition also carries a quiet historical resonance. A previous Kauffman painting once in the National Gallery was later transferred to Tate Britain and is believed to have been destroyed during the 1941 Plymouth Blitz. With this gift, the museum restores a long-missing presence in its collection and places Kauffman more firmly within the story of British public holdings.
