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Telemachus and the Nymphs of Calypso

1782
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: Telemachus and the Nymphs of Calypso
  • Artist: Angelica Kauffmann (Swiss, Chur 1741–1807 Rome)
  • Date: 1782
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 32 1/2 x 44 1/4 in. (82.6 x 112.4 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Collis P. Huntington, 1900
  • Object Number: 25.110.188
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

More Artwork
The Sorrow of Telemachus, Angelica Kauffmann Swiss, Oil on canvas
The Sorrow of Telemachus
Angelica Kauffmann
1783
Portrait of Emma Hamilton, Angelica Kauffmann Swiss, Black and white chalk, on gray prepared paper
Portrait of Emma Hamilton
Angelica Kauffmann
Sitter Lady Emma Hamilton
1791
Partisan, Steel, wood, copper alloy, Swiss
Partisan
Swiss
early 18th century
Piazza San Marco, Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal) Italian, Oil on canvas
Piazza San Marco
Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal)
late 1720s
Diana and Cupid, Pompeo Batoni Italian, Oil on canvas
Diana and Cupid
Pompeo Batoni
1761

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