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The Sorrow of Telemachus

1783
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 627
Kauffmann was born in Switzerland but made her reputation in Italy and England, where she was a founding member of the Royal Academy. These companion paintings were executed in Rome for Monsignor Onorato Caetani, who in the same year had his portrait painted by Kauffmann. Later portraits of him by Anton Raphael Mengs and Pompeo Batoni attest to the tight‑knit, international character of eighteenth‑century Roman intellectual circles. Kauffmann was among Europe’s most sought-after history painters. These compositions were based on François Fénelon’s The Adventures of Telemachus (1699), in which the son of the Greek hero Odysseus washes up on the shores of an island inhabited by Calypso and her nymphs.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Sorrow of Telemachus
  • Artist: Angelica Kauffmann (Swiss, Chur 1741–1807 Rome)
  • Date: 1783
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 32 3/4 x 45 in. (83.2 x 114.3 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Collis P. Huntington, 1900
  • Object Number: 25.110.187
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Telemachus and the Nymphs of Calypso, Angelica Kauffmann Swiss, Oil on canvas
Telemachus and the Nymphs of Calypso
Angelica Kauffmann
1782
Pair of doors with scenes after Angelica Kauffman, Angelica Kauffmann Swiss, Wood, polychromed copper, gilt bronze, British
Pair of doors with scenes after Angelica Kauffman
Angelica Kauffmann
after 1784
Design for Ceiling: Apollo and the Hours, Angelica Kauffmann Swiss, Pen and black ink, brush and gray ink, brown wash, watercolor, over black chalk
Design for Ceiling: Apollo and the Hours
Angelica Kauffmann
Giovanni Battista Cipriani
1760–1807
Girl Braiding Her Hair
Angelica Kauffmann
1765
Study of a Standing Woman, Angelica Kauffmann Swiss, Black chalk, heightened with white chalk, on paper prepared with gray-blue gouache
Study of a Standing Woman
Angelica Kauffmann
1792–96

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