Happy 279th Birthday, Johann Zoffany!

Looking back on earlier posts, it seems as if I never posted about Johann Zoffany and the exhibit at the Yale Center for British Art that I went to see before it closed back in February. Zoffany quickly surpassed Copley for me, as an artist, though his clients are the super aristocrats of Europe versus the wealthy in the colonies. Still, Zoffany's level of detail is exquisite, and one could easily scrape off the excess of his clientele and use his works as inspiration for clothing fit for the gentry class here in New England (and if you scrape even more off, probably the middling class).

Thanks to Twitter, I learned that today is Zoffany's birthday (many thanks to the Two Nerdy History Girls for retweeting the Georgian Gentleman's tweet about it), so, many celebrations to Mr. Zoffany! I will raise a toast to him tonight! Below, my favorite painting by him; look at that blue riding habit!

The Drummond Family, ca. 1769. Johann Zoffany. Oil on canvas.
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. No accession
number given.

How did this get started?

Since I'm a really connected social media maven, I set up a feed to have my blog posts automatically publish from Blogger to Facebook and Twitter (you can follow me on Twitter @kbpowers, I had to lock it down though as I'm beginning a new job search). A friend and follower on Twitter commented on my blog name; because of a trip to the RISD Museum together, I decided to take the plunge and create this blog. Here's his tweet:

How did this come about? Well, I happened to date a painting based solely on the gown the sitter was wearing in the museum's attached historic house. This blew my dear friend's mind! We went around the entire house, looking for 18th century paintings for me to date (and for the record, he's an art historian that says his program never went over this stuff!). Some I got right, others I got wrong, but it was a good experience and training for my 18th century eye.

So, really, I owe this blog all to my dear Anulfo. Sitting on the train in Providence, waiting to go back to Boston, I decided that I would take the plunge. Haven't regretted it yet!