Taco Dibbits, the Rijksmuseum director, stresses the importance of visual literacy for children growing up in a “completely image-driven society” and how visiting museums will teach them “not to be afraid, and to develop a critical sense” (Lunch with the FT, April 6). Words equally relevant for adults, and which I kept in mind as I visited the current exhibition of the 18th century Swiss painter Angelica Kauffman at the Royal Academy.
I had previously read Jackie Wullschläger’s somewhat dismissive review saying “she was never an interesting painter”, and that if she had been a man we would not be looking at her work today and that the exhibition only works “at the interstices between art and social history” (March 2).
As Wullschläger acknowledged “it speaks volumes about pressures of gender expectation that Kauffman’s liveliest paintings portray her male contemporaries”. But it is this dichotomy that makes her more interesting, both as a woman and as a painter in a male dominated society.
Rea Stavropoulos
London NW5, UK
