Johan Zoffany RA: Society Observed October 29, 2011

Of all the major artists working in eighteenth-century England, none explored more inventively the complexities of Georgian society and British imperial rule than Johan Zoffany. Zoffany's work provides an invaluable and distinctive appraisal of key British institutions and edifices: the art academy, the Court, the theatre, the families of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie, and the burgeoning empire. Despite achieving considerable success in England, Zoffany remained in many ways an outsider, scrutinizing British society and its customs and mores. Restless and drawn to a peripatetic existence, he traveled for extended periods in his native Germany, Austria, Italy, and India. After his death there was no move to situate Zoffany as one of the key figures in the burgeoning British school of art; this exhibition aims to correct that oversight and will demonstrate his central importance to the artistic culture of eighteenth-century Britain and Europe. The exhibit features some seventy oil paintings and a selection of drawings and prints, many of which have been rarely or never exhibited, from public and private collections around the world, including Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, India, and the United States. Incorporating revelatory new research carried out over the past decade, the exhibition--the first devoted to Zoffany ever to be held in the United States and the first in Britain since 1977--constitutes a timely and radical reevaluation of the extraordinary life and career of this brilliant and enigmatic artist.