Johann Zoffany, R.A.

This sale includes four works on paper by Johan Zoffany, R.A (lots 174-177). The drawings once formed part of a larger group of fifty-three works that Zoffany assembled in the late 1790s and that, in 1799, he sent to India for the attention of his old friend Major-General Claude Martin (1735-1800), a Frenchman whom he had met while working on the subcontinent during the previous decade. 

Zoffany’s drawings for Martin were diverse in theme. With images derived from the biblical, mythological, historical and modern worlds, as well as a number of sensitive and intimate portraits, it is thought that the contents of his gift were designed to reflect both men’s interests, humours and tastes.

Claude Martin died in 1800 with no heirs, so his executors arranged for his extensive collections to be sold. The drawing’s next documented owner was Benjamin Wolff (1790-1866), a brilliant Danish lawyer, who lived in Calcutta between 1817 and 1829. During his time in India, Wolff amassed a great fortune and also began to build what would become one of Denmark’s most revered art collections. In 1829, he moved back to Denmark and bought a substantial house called Engelholm Manor on southern Zealand. Here, he housed his collections which, by the end of his life, comprised more than 2,000 drawings from both the European and Indian schools.

After his death in 1866, Wolff’s drawings remained with his descendants for a further five generations. In May 2018, Brunn Rasmussen Auctioneers in Copenhagen held a major sale within which the Zoffanys appeared as one lot and were acquired by the present owner. Despite the fame of Wolff’s collection, its contents had never been published and, until that point, scholars had been unaware of the existence of Zoffany’s drawings. Their re-emergence has caused great excitement in academic circles, as not only does the group triple the number of known surviving works on paper by Zoffany, but the images themselves also act as windows into the mind of one of the greatest artists of the Age of Enlightenment.

This drawing: 

Zoffany shows the figure of fame blowing a trumpet on top of a pedestal, while two putti juggle three male portrait medallions between them. On the left, Neptune attacks a fallen woman, who personifies both Anarchy and the defeated French fleet. Britannia leans on the pedestal on the right and rests her foot on the woman below.

This drawing relates closely to Joseph Nollekens's early designs for his monument to three naval leaders, Captains William Bayre, William Blair and Lord Robert Manners, all of whom died in 1782 at the Battle of the Saints. The monument was installed in Westminster Abbey in 1793, after undergoing many changes in design.