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JOHAN ZOFFANY RA: Society Observed constitutes a radical re-evaluation of the extraordinary life and
career of this brilliant and enigmatic artist. Born near Frankfurt in 1733, Zoffany moved to London in
1760. Adapting to the indigenous art culture and patterns of patronage, he created virtuoso portraits
and subject pictures that proved to be highly desirable to a wide range of patrons including the actor
David Garrick and the court of George III. A Nomination Member of the Royal Academy, his work
provides an invaluable and often unique appraisal of key British institutions: the art academy; the
Court; the theatre; the bourgeois family; and the British Empire. Of all the major artists at work in
eighteenth-century England, none explored more inventively the interstices of Georgian society and
the complexities of British imperial rule than Johan Zoffany.

The exhibition features over 60 oil paintings, and a selection of drawings and prints from British and
international public and private collections, a number of which have rarely or never been exhibited
before. The works testify to the central importance of Zoffany to the artistic culture of eighteenthcentury
Europe.

Arranged thematically into eight sections, the exhibition opens with an exploration of his art in the
1750s when he trained in Rome and worked for German patrons, including the Prince-Archbishop
and Elector of Trier, producing history paintings in the grand style. A highlight of this section
includes an astonishing allegorical painting of David which has been traditionally considered to be a
self-portrait (Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria).

Two years after Zoffany’s arrival in London in 1760, he was introduced to the actor, David Garrick.
The section of Garrick and the London Stage examines Zoffany’s portraits and representations of
the theatre showing Garrick and other famous British actors. These reveal Zoffany’s brilliance in
capturing the excitement of live performance on canvas, in the context of the theatrical revolution
spearheaded by Garrick.

The Court focuses on the importance of patronage in Zoffany’s portrait career from his introduction
to the Court of George III in the early 1760s to his portraits of the family of the Empress Maria
Theresa. Highlights in this section include Queen Charlotte and her Two Eldest Sons, 1764-5 (The
Royal Collection) which demonstrates Zoffany’s innovative treatment of royal sitters by placing them
within a domestic setting.

The section devoted to the Royal Academy has as its focus Zoffany’s major group portrait, The
Portraits of the Academicians of the Royal Academy, 1771-2 (The Royal Collection). Through this work
and other major paintings associated with the Academy, the section reveals Zoffany’s attitude
towards the academic infrastructure of British artistic society and celebrates the formative years of
the King’s Academy of Arts.

The section Families and Friends presents Zoffany’s approach to portraiture as commissioned by
aristocratic and bourgeois sitters. Developing the full potential of the group portrait as
‘conversation piece’, these works celebrate informality and sociability, and reveal the dynamics of
ordinary, everyday family life. Often placed within grand interiors or on landed estates, these group
portraits confirm the social and economic standing of sitters drawn from the world of politics,
commerce and the arts.

Zoffany’s sojourn in Italy from 1772 t0 1779 features in Italy, Old Masters, and the Antique. This
period resulted in arguably his greatest painting: The Tribuna of the Uffizi , 1772-7 (The Royal
Collection). The ways in which Italy impacted upon Zoffany’s visualization of the collecting of
antique statuary and old master paintings is also explored.

A Passage to India examines Zoffany’s life and work in India from 1783 to 1789. The life of the Indian
courts and the relative integration of the British residents, many in the employ of the East India
Company, are vividly captured in his portraits, genre paintings and landscapes, including his Indian
masterpiece, Colonel Mordaunt’s Cock Match, 1784-8 (Tate, London).

Revolution, Reaction, and Retirement focuses on Zoffany’s career in the 1790s after his return from
India. His most ambitious paintings of this final period were the two pendant pictures portraying
acts of barbarity perpetrated during the French Revolution; Plundering the King’s Cellar at Paris, 1794,
(Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, Connecticut) and A Scene in the Champ de Mars, Celebrating over
the Bodies of the Swiss Soldiers on the 12th August 1792, with a Portrait of the Duke of Orleans, c.1794
(Museen der Stadt, Regensburg). Their shocking subject matter reveals the intensity of Zoffany’s
response to recent events in France, and his continuing desire to make a deeply personal statement
through his art.

BIOGRAPHY
Johan Zoffany RA (Zauffaly) was born near Frankfurt in 1733. He trained as an artist in Germany and
Italy. His earliest known works were made for German princedoms in the 1750s. In 1760 Zoffany
moved to London. There he was patronised initially by the actor, David Garrick, and by the Court of
George III, where he achieved considerable success. Zoffany became a Royal Academician in 1769, a
year after the Academy was founded by George III with Sir Joshua Reynolds as its first President. In
1772 Zoffany went to Italy with a commission from Queen Charlotte to paint The Tribuna of the
Uffizi. He also visited Vienna and Parma, before returning to England in 1779. Following a sojourn in
India from 1783 to 1789, he worked once more in England, until his retirement around 1800. Zoffany
died in 1810, and was buried near his home in Kew, alongside Thomas Gainsborough.

ORGANISATION
Johan Zoffany RA: Society Observed has been co-organised by the Royal Academy of Arts and the
Yale Center for British Art. The exhibition is curated by Martin Postle, Assistant Director for
Academic Activities at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. The organising curator at
the Yale Center for British Art is Gillian Forrester, Curator of Prints and Drawings, and, at the Royal
Academy, MaryAnne Stevens, Director of Academic Affairs.

CATALOGUE
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated book edited by Martin Postle, written by an
international team of distinguished scholars, and published by Yale University Press in association
with the Yale Center for British Art and the Royal Academy of Arts.