Which female neoclassical painter was a founding member of the Royal Academy of Arts?

Angelica Kauffman was a founding member of the Royal Academy of Arts. She and Mary Moser were the only two women among the Academy’s founding members in 1768.

Born in Switzerland in 1741, Kauffman was trained as both a painter and musician. Her career took her through Austria and Italy before she settled in London in 1766, where she quickly gained royal and aristocratic patrons. She became particularly known for portraits and history paintings based on classical, biblical, and literary subjects.

Kauffman’s membership was an exceptional achievement in an eighteenth-century art world dominated by men. Her reputation as a serious history painter helped her win recognition in an institution that aimed to elevate the status of British artists. She later returned to Italy and established a celebrated studio in Rome.

Artemisia Gentileschi and Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun were major European painters, but neither was a founding member of the London Royal Academy. Mary Cassatt belonged to a much later generation and was never an Academy founder.