Universally recognized as a brilliant and gifted 18th-century artist, Johan Zoffany (1733-1810) was regarded by Horace Walpole as one of the three greatest painters in England, along with his friends Reynolds and Gainsborough. Yet he has remained without a detailed study of his life and works, owing to the fascinating and complex vicissitudes of his career, now established from widely scattered sources. From being a late-baroque painter at a German princely court to working under the royal patronage of George III and Queen Charlotte, from his serious interest in Indian life and landscape, developed while living near Calcutta, to his attacks on the bloody progress of the French Revolution, Zoffany created pictures that document with incomparable liveliness the worlds and people among whom he moved.

Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

"[A] beautiful tome . . . overflowing with new information, insightful interpretations, and interesting arguments. . . . [a] definitive book on the artist."—C.A. Hanson, Choice - Choice

"Shortlisted for the William M. B. Berger Prize for British History, as given by the Berger Collection Educational Trust and The British Art Journal" - Berger Collection Educational Trust and The British Art Journal

"Shortlisted for the 2013 Historians of British Art Book Prize in the Pre-1800 category, given by the Historians of British Art." - Historians of British Art