Background
He was born in Schwarzenberg, Austria, and is described as a relatively poor man with painting skills.
He was born in Schwarzenberg, Austria, and is described as a relatively poor man with painting skills.
The original family home was a small town in the Austrian alps called Schwarzenberg in the Vorarlberg area. In the years 1740 to 1742 he was in duty of the prince-bishop from Chur/Switzerland. At a later time she donated the high altar piece in form of paintings from her own hand.
In the same period the church painting took place the family was traveling the nearby northern lakeside of Lake Constance doing works for the Tettnang seated Montfort counts in form of castle depictions and similar, and going further to Meersburg and even Konstanz.
In 1760 they left for Italy again in order to do studies on classical and Renaissance art there. Whilst the travels they earned money by portraying locals along their pathological
Up to 1766 they went to Rome with intermediate halts in Milan, Modena, Parma and Florence. On 5 October 1762 the daughter received honorable membership of the Accademia di Bologna.
In 1764 this got topped by joining the Accademia di San Luca in Rome on a similar base.
The traveling Englishman and actor David Garrick gave the daughter the chance to portrait her which in turn went into her master piece making her finally famous. On recommendation of Lady Wentworth both moved to London and stayed there starting 1766. The marriage took place in Juli 1781.
In October of the same year they arrived in Venice, where Kauffmann died in the following January.