Johann Zoffany

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Self-portrait as David with the head of Goliath, around 1756. National Gallery of Victoria , Australia

Johann Zoffany , also Zoffani or Johannes Josephus Zauffely RA (born March 13, 1733 in Frankfurt am Main , † November 11, 1810 in Strand-on-the-Green , London ) was a British painter of German origin.

Life

Johann Joseph Zoffany was born in Frankfurt / Main. He was the son of a court architect who came from Bohemia and worked for the Prince of Thurn und Taxis in Frankfurt / Main. When the court moved from Frankfurt to Regensburg in 1748, he came to Regensburg with his father; Here he worked in the workshop of the Regensburg painter Martin Speer in the Brixner Hof and married a woman from Regensburg. He was a student of Francesco Solimena and later studied in Rome with Agostino Masucci .

In 1761 Zoffany went to London at the age of 27. There he became the protégé of the famous actor David Garrick and mainly painted theater scenes. Garrick presented Zoffany to the then King George III. who gave him the orders to paint his family. Zoffany took on the form of the conversation picture and thereby gained the favor of the king, who nominated him in 1769 for the royal art academy, which opened in the same year.

On December 19, 1763, Zoffany became a member of the Association of Freemasons (The Old King's Lodge No 28). In the 1770s, when the king withdrew an order from him for incorporating commoners into the painting, he moved to Italy. He lived most of the time in Florence . In 1783 he moved to Calcutta and portrayed Governor General Warren Hastings among others . In 1789 he returned to London, was shipwrecked by the Andamans and, according to the testimony of William Dalrymple, was "the first and only member of the Royal Academy to become cannibals". In England he did not manage to build on his earlier success.

Zoffany was the first painter who was allowed to portray the royal family in a casual atmosphere.

Works (selection)

  • David Garrick as Jaffier and Susannah Maria Cibber as Belvidera (in the play Venice Preserv'd )
  • David Garrick in Vanbrugh's Provoked Wife, Theater Royal, Drury Lane (1763)
  • Portrait of Sir Lawrence Dundas and his grandson Lawrence
  • The Third Duke of Richmond out Shooting with his Servant, (ca.1765)
  • George III, Queen Charlotte and their six eldest Children (1770), The Royal Collection , London
  • George III (1771), The Royal Collection, London
  • The Tribuna of the Uffizi (1772-78), The Royal Collection, Windsor Castle
  • William Palmer and his Family (1785), Oriental and India Office Collection, British Library

literature

Web links

Commons : Johann Zoffany  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Incorrectly written as "John Soafaney" in: Albert F. Caldwell: History Of The Old King'S Arms Lodge No. 28, 1725-1899 . George Kenning, London 1899, p. 109. See Penelope Treadwell: Johan Zoffany. Artist and adventurer . Paul Holberton Publishing, London 2009, pp. 127-133
personal data
SURNAME Zoffany, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zauffely, Johannes Josephus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British painter of German origin
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1733
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH November 11, 1810
Place of death Strand-on-the-Green , London