Possibly Franciska Krasinska, Duchess of Courland
c. 1790
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall (painted oval): 62.9 x 49.5 cm (24 3/4 x 19 1/2 in.) framed: 72.4 x 57.8 x 3.2 cm (28 1/2 x 22 3/4 x 1 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CIS-B
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Miss Alice Preston
Accession Number
1954.5.1
Art Historical Context
Angelica Kauffman’s *Possibly Franciska Kras, Duchess of Courland (c. 1790 is a refined oil-on-canvas portrait that captures the elegance of late 18th-century aristocracy. Kauffman, a pioneering Swiss-born Neoclassical painter and one of only women founders of London’s Royal Academy, excelled in portraying nobility with grace and idealism. The oval format—measuring 62.9 x 49.5 cm—evokes intimate, gem-like portraits popular in the Rococo-to-Neoclassical transition, emphasizing the subject’s poise against a softly lit background. Painted during the Enlightenment era, when women artists like Kau...
About the Artist
Angelica Kauffmann · 1741–1807
Swiss painter and etcher, and one of the few women artists of the time working in the Neo-Classical style to specialize in both portraits and subject pictures. Her famous sitters include the family of George III in Britain, Grand-Duke Paul and Prince Nikolay Yusupov in Russia, Stanislav II Poniatowski and Stanislav Kostka Potocki in Poland, Queen Caroline of Naples and Emperor Joseph II of Austria...