Women artists in all ages and countries

by E. F. Ellet

Poor Angelica, who had shunned love on the banks of Como, and under the glowing skies of Italy; and since her coming to London had rejected many offers of the most advantageous alliance, that she might remain free to devote herself to her art, was caught in the fine-spun snare, and yielded to chivalrous pity for one she believed worthy of her heart’s affection. The marriage was celebrated by a Catholic priest, without the formality of writings, and without witnesses.

Angelica had received commissions to paint several members of the royal family and eminent personages of the court, and her talents had procured her the favorable notice of the Queen of England. One day, while she was painting at Buckingham Palace, her majesty entered into conversation with her, and Angelica communicated to her royal friend the fact of her marriage. The queen congratulated her, and sent an invitation to the Count de Horn to present himself at court. The impostor, however, dared not appear so openly, and he kept himself very close at home, for he well knew that it could not be long before the deception would be discovered.

At length the suspicions of Angelica’s father, to whom her marriage had been made known, led him to inquiries, which were aided by friends of influence. About this time, some say, the real count returned, and was surprised at being frequently congratulated on his marriage. Then came the mortifying discovery that the pretended count was a low impostor. The queen informed Angelica, and assured her of her sympathy.

The fellow had been induced to seek the poor girl’s hand from motives of cupidity alone, desiring to possess himself of the property she had acquired by her labors. He now wished to compel her to a hasty flight from London. Believing herself irrevocably bound to him, Angelica resolved to submit to her fate; but her firmness and strength of nature enabled her to evade compliance with his requisition that she should leave England, till the truth was made known to her—that he who called himself her husband was already married to another woman still living. This discovery made it dangerous for the impostor to remain in London, and he was compelled to fly alone, after submitting unwillingly to the necessity of restoring some three hundred pounds obtained from his victim, to which he had no right.

The false marriage was, of course, immediately declared null and void. These unhappy circumstances in no way diminished the interest and respect manifested for the lady who, in plucking the rose of life, had been so severely wounded by its thorns; on the contrary, she was treated with more attention than ever, and received several unexceptionable offers of marriage. But all were declined; she chose to live only for her profession.

One of Angelica’s biographers pronounces her “proof against flattery.” Nollekens, on the other hand, accused her of having been a coquette in her youth. While at Rome, before her marriage, he said she was extremely fond of personal admiration. “One evening she took her station in one of the most conspicuous boxes of the theatre, accompanied by two artists, both of whom, as well as many others, were desperately enamored of her. She had her place between her two adorers; and while her arms were folded before her in front of the box over which she leaned, she managed to press a hand of both, so that each imagined himself the cavalier of her choice.”

After fifteen years’ residence in England, when the physician who attended her suffering father advised return to Italy, and the invalid expressed his fear of dying and leaving her unprotected, Angelica yielded to his entreaties, and bestowed her hand upon the painter Antonio Zucchi.

This gentleman was born in Venice in 1728, and had worked there upon historical pieces. He afterward took to landscape-painting and architecture, and many of his designs were published in learned works of the day. Being induced to go to England, he obtained an excellent place, and won the warm friendship of Mr. Kauffman. The marriage with his daughter took place in 1781, and proved a most happy one, undisturbed by any untoward occurrence till the death of Zucchi.

Angelica, with her husband and her father, now returned to the sunny south. Stopping in Schwarzenberg to visit their relatives, they proceeded to Italy, settling themselves for a prolonged stay. In January of the following year Kauffman expired in the arms of his loving child.

The wedded pair, anxious to escape from the shadow of this sorrow, hastened to Rome, where they fixed their permanent abode, paying only a few visits to Naples at the command of the royal family. Their house was the centre of attraction to the artistic and literary society of that capital of art; and Madame Zucchi did the honors and dispensed hospitalities with a grace peculiarly her own, without losing a particle of her energy in the prosecution of her painting, or any portion of the love for it that had distinguished her early years. This may account for the uniform individuality discernible in her productions, in the merits and defects of which may be traced the peculiarities of her nature and training.