The Academicians
JOHAN ZOFFANY (1733/4–1810)
Zoffany’s image shows the ‘back-of-house’ clutter and the intellectual dignity of working artists, where fine gentlemen sit on packing cases and converse with polish and good humour.
The key below identifies all of the figures in the painting:
KEY
Unless otherwise stated, artists are founder members of the Academy:
- John Gwynn (1713–86), architect
- Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727–85), painter
- Benjamin West (1738–1820), given a posture resembling his heroic history paintings andderived from the standing figure at the left foreground of the School of Athens; given prominence as an artist favoured by the King
- Johan Zoffany, as if introducing his work, made RA by royal nomination in 1769
- Mason Chamberlin (1727–87), portrait painter
- Tan-che-qua, Chinese artist visiting London
- George Barret (1732–84), landscape painter
- Joseph Wilton (1722–1803), sculptor
- Jeremiah Meyer (1735–89), miniature painter
- Dominic Serres (1719–93), marine painter
- The brothers Paul (1725–1809)
- and Thomas (1721–98) Sandby, behaving fraternally, the former wearing Windsor uniform, though the latter was Deputy Ranger of Windsor Great Park
- William Tyler (1728 –1801), sculptor and architect
- John Inigo Richards (1731 –1810), painter
- Francis Hayman (1708–76), popular painter of the St Martin’s Lane generation, resembling Falstaff from one of his own compositions
- Francis Milner Newton (1720–94), painter
- Sir William Chambers (1723–96), architect and treasurer of the Academy
- Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–92), first President
- William Hunter (1718–83), famous surgeon and Professor of Anatomy at the Academy
- Francesco Bartolozzi (1727–1815), engraver
- Agostino Carlini (c.1718–90), sculptor and painter
- Richard Wilson (1714–82), landscape painter; it was said that Zoffany painted and then removed a coat of arms of pipes and tankards to allude to Wilson’s drunkenness
- Charles Catton The Elder (1728–98), satirical painter appropriately adopting the pose of the Cynic, Diogenes, from Raphael’s School of Athens
- Richard Yeo (c.1720–79), medallist
- Samuel Wale (1721–86), painter
- Francesco Zuccarelli (1702–88), landscape painter given prominence as an artist favoured by the King
- Edward Penny (1714–91), painter
- Peter Toms (c.1728–77), painter
- George Michael Moser (1706–83), enamellist and Keeper of the Academy, here setting the model’s pose and holding the sling to support his hand in comfort
- Angelica Kauffmann (1741–1807), history painter, represented as a portrait hanging on the wall, as it was considered improper for a woman to attend the life school
- Mary Moser (1744–1819), flower painter, represented as a painting for the same reasons as the above
- Nathaniel Hone (1718–84), famously arrogant portrait painter given here a suitable swagger; his shadow across a canvas perhaps alludes to the supposed origin of painting (a Corinthian maid tracing her lover’s shadow)
- Edward Burch (1730–1814), miniature painter and gem-cutter elected in 1771
- Joseph Nollekens (1737–1823), sculptor elected in 1772
- Richard Cosway (1742–1821), flattering portrait painter and famous dandy, here looking the part and perhaps denigrating the antique with his cane, elected in 1771
- William Hoare (1707–92), portrait painter working in Bath