Reviewer, ‘Penelope Treadwell, Johann Zoffany: Artist and Adventurer, Paul Holberton’, 2009 in Art Quarterly (The Art Fund) Spring 2010.
Johann Zoffany (1733-1810) is invariably the bridesmaid, never the bride: often a participant but, with a few noble exceptions, rarely centre stage. He is not alone. Eighteenth-century British Art has been divided habitually between the Ages of Hogarth and Reynolds, the native-particular and the classical-grand manner, and within either camp Zoffany sits uneasily.