| Besides the Angelika-Kauffmann hall and the parish church, Schwarzenberg has a special museum devoted to the memory and work of the famous daughter of the Bregenzerwald. A modern museum was “implanted“ in the outbuilding of the 19th century local museum in Schwarzenberg.
She was born at Chur in Graubünden, Switzerland, but grew up in Schwarzenberg in Vorarlberg/Austria. Her father, Johann Josef Kauffmann, was a poor man and mediocre painter, but apparently very successful in teaching his precocious daughter.
She rapidly acquired several languages, read incessantly, and showed marked talents as a musician. Her greatest progress, however, was in painting; and in her twelfth year she had become a notability, with bishops and nobles for her sitters. In 1754 her father took her to Milan. Later visits to Italy of long duration followed:
in 1763 she visited Rome, returning again in 1764. From Rome she passed to Bologna and Venice, being everywhere feted and caressed, as much for her talents as for her personal charms. |