Johann Zoffany, R.A.

Recently re-emerged from an Italian private collection, this work constitutes an exciting and rare addition to Johann Zoffany's œuvre. Signed and dated 1778, it was likely painted during the artist's sojourn in Parma, and bears close stylistic similarities to another Holy Family, also on panel, painted on the reverse of the artist's celebrated Self-portrait as a Monk, signed and dated 1779, in the Palazzo della Pilotta, Parma.¹

Johann Zoffany, a German-born painter who achieved considerable success in England, travelled to Italy in 1772, remaining there until 1778 under the patronage of King George III and Queen Charlotte. His Italian sojourn represented a pivotal moment in his artistic development, allowing him to refine his style through direct engagement with the works of the Italian Renaissance. Zoffany’s presence in Florence is particularly well documented, as it was there that he undertook his most ambitious royal commission, The Tribuna of the Uffizi, a complex and meticulously detailed group portrait of English Grand Tourists admiring masterpieces from the Medici collection (Royal Collection, Windsor Castle).²

The years in Italy also afforded Zoffany the opportunity to explore religious and devotional subjects—genres relatively rare in his English production, which was dominated by conversation pieces and theatrical portraits. During this period, Zoffany produced several intimate works, including the present Holy Family, in which the artist’s sensitive treatment of the subject bears the unmistakable influence of Correggio and Parmese painting.

We are grateful to Martin Postle for endorsing the attribution to Johann Zoffany on the basis of digital images.

¹ Inv. no. 1118; oil on panel; 43 x 39 cm.; recto: https://complessopilotta.it/opera/autoritratto-10/; verso: https://photoarchive.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/objects/410415/the-madonna-and-child-with-st-joseph?ctx=9f8e16212ddc39f7a2a9b04689961d03c0987cbe&idx=52

² Inv. no. RCIN 406983; oil on canvas, 123.5 x 155 cm.; https://www.rct.uk/collection/406983/the-tribuna-of-the-uffizi