Preparatory drawing for the An Allegory of Painting project, head of a woman after Angelica Kauffman's Design, 2016

Sarah Pickstone (b. 1965)

RA Collection: Art

These drawings are studies of the head and hand of the female figure in Angelica Kauffman's Design. Sarah Pickstone produced this work as part of her project An Allegory of Painting which took place at the Royal Academy in 2018-19 as part of the programme of events to celebrate the institution's 250th anniversary.

This drawing relates to Belvedere, one of two paintings that Pickstone exhibited at the Academy as part of the project. The painting is a response to Kauffman’s Design. Pickstone's Belvedere was temporarily shown in place of Kauffman's Design in the ceiling of the front entrance hall of Burlington House.

In Kauffman’s Elements of Painting (of which Design is a part), women are shown actively painting and drawing, in contrast with traditional, passive representations. By focusing on their active gaze and gesture, Pickstone 're-sees' the history of the Royal Academy and of women artists in general.