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JOHAN ZOFFANY, R.A.

(1733-1810)

Self Portrait

Self Portrait
Signed and dated 'Zoffany Dec 24 1796'
Black, white and red chalks on paper
14 x 10 1/2 Inches
Acquired by a Private Collector, USA

Provenance

The artist by whom given to Major General Claude Martin (1735-1800), Lucknow, India, circa 1799

His sale, Tulloh & Co, Calcutta, 18 December, 1800

Purchased by Benjamin Wolff (1760 - 1866) presumably whilst in  Calcutta,1817-1829,

Engelholm Manor, Copenhagen and by descent       

 

Of indisputable importance, this self-portrait was drawn by the artist on Christmas Eve 1796, at the age of sixty-three. This is the most complete and finished of Zoffany's self portraits on paper. Holding his porte-crayon over what we would like to imagine is the present album of drawings, and following the directive found on the title page, he proceeds to 'fill it up with his remarks.'

 

William Pressly has argued that the artist used the conceit of depicting himself as the philosopher Democritus, traditionally shown with a wry smile, meditatively posed and with a slightly inclined head. The age-old intermixture of melancholy with genius was often found in Renaissance and Baroque portraiture and Zoffany thus seems to have knowingly depicted himself as 'the solitary great man in whom sadness and inspiration were intertwined.'

Read more

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    Pencil, conté crayon and watercolour 28 x 19 inches
    Acquired by a Private Collector, UK
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