BONHAMS HOST ZOFFANY EXHIBITION TO COINCIDE WITH ZOFFANY BOOK LAUNCH ON EVE OF BICENTENARY YEAR OF THE ARTIST’S DEATH
To coincide with the launch of a new book, Johan Zoffany – Artist and Adventurerby Penny Treadwell, Bonhams will be holding a small exhibition of paintings by Zoffany, running concurrently with their Old Master Paintings sale preview.
The Zoffany exhibition runs at Bonhams, 101 New Bond Street, from Thursday 3 December (9am-4.30pm) then each week day to Friday 11 December, 9am to 5pm, and Sunday 6 December, 11am-3pm.
Caroline Oliphant, Bonhams Head of Pictures in Europe, says: “The paintings on display at Bonhams are not normally available to the public, coming as they do from private collections in the UK. This is a rare opportunity to see these works by one of the major names in 18th century British portraiture.”
The Zoffany Exhibition pictures include:
Portrait of the artist with his family, (c.1799-1801)
This intimate portrait of the artist with his family is an interesting departure from the formal ‘conversation pieces’ for which Zoffany is best known. The handling of paint is loose, giving the work an almost sketch-like quality and an immediacy that is not evident in the more highly-finished commissions for other sitters.
Portrait of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1763)
The fourth Earl (1718-92) is reputed to have given his name to the eponymous portable snack: an enthusiastic gambler, he was reluctant to leave the gaming tables and ordered his meat to be brought to him between two pieces of bread, thus creating the first ‘sandwich’.
Two paintings of The Family of Sir William Young, (c. 1766), each showing a group of Sir William’s children. These relate to a larger, single painting now hanging in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool which shows Sir William and his family and which was commissioned at the time of his appointment as Lieutenant-Governor of Dominica. Interesting is the portrayal of the slave from one of Sir William’s West Indian plantations who accompanied him back to England. The absence of a metal slave-collar and his familiar manner with the children suggests that he may have been regarded by them more as a servant than slave, in line with the growing change in attitudes towards slavery.
Portrait of Daniel Carl Solander, (c. 1771)
This portrait shows the Swedish naturalist Daniel Solander (1733-82) who accompanied Sir Joseph Banks on Captain Cook’s first voyage (1768-71).
George Mattocks as Don Ferdinand in ‘The Duenna’, (c. 1775)
George Mattocks (1734/5–1804) was a singer and actor, who sang at Covent Garden intermittently from 1748 until 1783.He is here depicted in Sheridan’s comic opera. Zoffany portrayed a number of actors, including many of David Garrick, and this small painting is lent to the exhibition by The Garrick Club, who own many of these works.
King David playing the harp (c. 1795)
This late work, unusually for Zoffany showing a biblical subject, was originally painted as an altarpiece for Chiswick Parish Church, close to Zoffany’s home and was presented by him to the church.
Zoffany’s Grand Lodge certificate, issued by the Premier or ‘Moderns’ Grand Lodge, 9 January 1783. It shows that Zoffany was a member of the Lodge at the Thatched House Tavern (now Lodge of the Nine Muses) in St James’s Street. It will be displayed with a Masonic apron , also dating from around 1780. Lord Sandwich, also shown, was instrumental in Zoffany becoming a Freemason.
Paul Holberton Publishing is pleased to announce the first comprehensive biography of the portrait painter Johan Zoffany. Johan Zoffany: Artist and Adventurer by Penelope Treadwell is a major new study of an artist of great importance in his day but largely ignored by current art historical literature.
Penelope Treadwell has worked as a journalist, television presenter, teacher and art historian, gaining her Masters degrees in 18th-century English Literature (University of London) and Art History (The Courtauld Institute of Art, London). During the 1990s, she lived in Johan Zoffany’s former house on Strand-on-the-Green in Chiswick, London, where she started on a ten-year journey that traced Zoffany’s artistic (and actual) footsteps, painstakingly reassessing existing scholarship and bringing to light important new discoveries of her own.
Paul Holberton Publishing, www.paul-holberton.net
