Royal Academy of Arts
An Allegory
of Painting, by Sarah
Pickstone
Royal Academy of
Arts, London 2018-19
Sarah
Pickstone was commissioned by the Royal Academy to make a work responding to
the life of Swiss-born artist Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807) who
was one of only two women among the Royal
Academy’s founding members.
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Colour design:
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Sarah Pickstone |
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Material:
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Lascaux Aquacryl on birch ply panel
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Scale: |
The measurements of the ceiling panel Belvedere are approximately 160 x 142 cm
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Location:
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London
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Images: |
Photographs courtesy of the Royal Academy of Arts, photographed by Justine Trickett |
Kauffman’s Elements of Art is a group of four ceiling roundels made for the Royal Academy in 1765. They take the form of female allegories representing Colour, Design, Composition and Invention.
Sarah Pickstone created a two-work homage to Kauffman’s roundels.
The Rainbow is a 6m x 3.5m reinterpretation of Colour. Belvedere is a reinterpretation of Design made to replace Kauffman’s painting while it was on display in the RA Collections gallery.
Through these paintings, Sarah Pickstone re-sees the history of the Royal Academy and the place of its women artists. Having studied Kauffman’s works up close, she used bold and energetic brushstrokes that capture the fluidity and vibrancy of the earlier work.
