SOLD. Johan Zoffany: Claude Martin's Zoffany Album. A collection of 53 drawings. A few signed, dated and/or inscribed. Black chalk or "trois crayons". C.410 x 280 mm.

879/437

Johan Zoffany (b. Frankfurt am Main 1733, d. London 1810)

Claude Martin's Zoffany Album. A collection of fifty-three drawings by Johan Zoffany, executed during the 1790’s exclusively for his friend in India, Colonel Claude Martin. Forty-nine have been rearranged by Benjamin Wolff in a 19th century album. The remaining four on separate mounts. A few signed, dated and/or inscribed. Black chalk or “trois crayons” on grey laid paper. Sheet size c. 410×280 mm.

Kursiv:

Of indisputable importance is this collection of autograph drawings executed by Johan Zoffany at the request of his friend Claude Martin in India: “This Book Belong to Lieutenant Colonel Claude Martin Given to his Friend Baron De Zofanni For to Fill it up with his Remarks when at his Pleasure to return it to the Colonel by the Best opportunity at Lucknow” -as the first title page reads.

Fifty-three drawings (of fifty-four) were rearranged and bound in an album by Benjamin Wolff after his return from India - adding a second title page reading: “LIV haandtegninger udförte i Indien efter General Claude Martins Anmodning af Baron de Zoffany. Tilhører B. Wolff” (LIV Hand drawings, executed in India by Baron de Zoffany at General Claude Martin’s request. Belongs to B.Wolff).

The collection complements and adds significantly to Zoffany’s exceedingly rare corpus of drawings and offers new valuable knowledge to the artist’s late oeuvre. However, the two title pages raises the question as to how, where and when the drawings were executed. In an attempt to establish a chronology the following text distinguishes between Claude Martins Book and Benjamin Wolff’s Album.

Johan Zoffany sailed for India in 1783. He prospered by painting portraits and conversation pieces for the Anglo-Indian society. In Lucknow Zoffany met Claude Martin (1735–1800) - one of the best-known figures of eighteenth-century north India. Martin was a man of many and varied talents and of notable wealth - a connoisseur and collector, and a generous patron to British artists who found their way to Lucknow. He became a lifelong friend of Zoffany while working on the first version of “Colonel Mordaunt’s Cock Match” (c. 1784–1786, Tate Galllery). In the painting Martin is depicted on the right side, throned in the midst of European adventures, orientalists and friends. In one of his finest Indian paintings, “Self-portrait with Colonel Antoine Polier, Claude Martin and John Wombwell ”(1786–87) Zoffany depicts a circle of friends, their shared interests in art, literature and connoisseurship, and their fascination with India itself and its customs.

Johan Zoffany left India after a six year stay and arrived in England August 1789. Prior to his departure from Lucknow it seems plausible that Claude Martin, as a token of dear friendship, presented a book to him with the above cited title page.

In Wolff’s Album we find two portraits of Claude Martin – one bearing Zoffany’s comment “This I Find Of Wery Leick”. These may have been executed during his stay with Martin in Lucknow or more likely in England and after studies from India. The remaining drawings seem to have been executed during the 1790s. Zoffany’s remarkable self-portrait and a few others are dated respectively 1796 and 1797. How and when Martins Book was returned to Lucknow is uncertain. Despite the distance Zoffany and Martin had remained in contact and as Zoffany continuously acted on behalf of Martin in acquiring statues, furniture etc. in England it is plausible the Book of drawings was returned in one of these shipments.

This may have been as late as 1799 as Wolff’s Album contains a study for or after “Portrait of the artist with his Family”, painted c. 1799—1801.

Almost all record of Claude Martin's collection is lost. However, in the Calcutta Gazette 18 December 1800, appears the following advertisement: TO BE SOLD BY PUBLIC AUCTION:- BY TULLOH AND COMPANY. AT THEIR ROOM, On Thursday, the 8th January 1801. (By order of the Executors of the late Major-General Martin, Deceased). The sale of Claude Martins vast collection would last several years. From time to time the Calcutta Gazette contained descriptive reports from the sale highlighting “about 4,000 volumes of highly valuable books […] about 150 paintings in oil colours on different subjects: forty-seven oil paintings and sketches by Zoffany: a very extensive collection of fine prints, drawings, caricatures and Hindustani sketches”. Claude Martin’s etched bookplate is pasted inside the cover of Wolff’s Album, suggesting that it was included in the book collection or at least among the extensive collection of drawings.

Benjamin Wolff’s memoirs include several accounts of his stay in India 1817–1829. Although thoroughly described they offer only scarce information as to where, how and when he acquired drawings. He does however mention that the best and most important drawings were purchased at auction sales. In his summary of the entire collection, twenty portfolios in total, Wolff notes having brought back 1031 drawings from the East Indies – excluding the 342 drawings made by himself. Martin’s Book is not listed among these as Wolff may have regarded this collection as European and as such included it among the European drawings. According to the memoirs these were mounted, annotated and embossed with the collector’s monogram in 1861. The drawings are arranged randomly in the Album, taking no notice of the numbering (2–45) on several of the sheets. It is unclear when Wolff’s Album was created. The half leather binding suggests 1840s-1860s.

The drawings, in part with Zoffany’s handwritten comments, explores aspects of the artist’s fertile imagination, friendships and family, lifelong appreciation of music and a stricking sense of wit. Zoffany’s consequent use of black, white and coloured chalks on coloured paper corresponds with known chalk drawings and to some extent with the 180 drawings offered in the artist’s estate sale 1811 (Drawings in chalk, illustrative of the country and manners of India. By Mr. Zoffany, Cat. nos. 14–39). Besides the interesting Cat. no. 26 “Nine, Colonel Martin and other Portraits, etc.” the catalogue lists unfinished sketches and completed paintings that, at least in terms of subject, relate to some of the drawings i.e. Susannah and the Elders, Design of the Altar-piece of the Chapel at Brentford and Contemplation. Of noteworthy mention are, besides the two portraits of Martin, the personal drawings depicting himself and his family. In addition to the enigmatic self-portrait and the depiction of the artist surrounded by his family the album offers a painterly drawing portraying the artist’s second daughter Cecilia Clementina Eliza seated in an interior. A portrait of a young woman wearing a fashionable feathered hat also resembles Cecilia.

It was Johan Zoffany’s intention to return to India and in March 1798, he was granted permission by the East India Company to return to Bengal “to settle his private affairs and practice there as a Painter”. Increasingly poor health and a change in the current state of affairs in Lucknow would set an end to the opportunity of one last adventurous journey. And so, in the last drawing of the album, Zoffany has laid down his palette and brushes, lying in repose, he returns a final remark to his friend - fines.

Condition

Condition report on request. Contact wolff@bruun-rasmussen.dk

Additional Remarks

Please note: The item is subject to the Anti-Money Laundering Act. In the event of a hammer price of DKK 50,000 or more, including buyer’s premium, the buyer must submit a copy of a valid photo ID and proof of address in order to collect the item.

Auction

The Wolff Collection, 30 May 2018