were so long that he was constantly finding the numbers of the party increased by one of those events so happily frequent in the domestic annals of our Royal House. These royal commissions of course brought a flood of other work; and during these years many famous people must have sat to Zoffany."

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He found another important patron in the fourth Earl of Sandwich, the notorious Jemmy Twitcher,' whose favours proved as inauspicious to the painter as those of Garrick and Barrington had been profitable. Jemmy' had given assistance to Captain Cook, who named the Sandwich Islands after him, and he persuaded Zoffany, who had painted three pictures of him, including that now in the National Portrait Gallery, to accompany Cook's second expedition in the suite of Sir Joseph Banks. It is curious to think of an artist so distinguished and prosperous as Zoffany going on this remote and dangerous voyage, to play the part which would at the present day probably be borne by the photographer. But Zoffany was always to be tempted by adventure, and no doubt saw in the proposed expedition an opportunity of combining pleasure and profit. At any rate he seems to have found no difficulty in collecting commissions for pictures from his numerous patrons. At the last moment, however, he and Sir Joseph Banks, being dissatisfied with the accommodation provided, withdrew from the enterprise; and Zoffany's friend Hodges took his place. It is said that the painter had spent in preparing for this expedition over 1000l., all of which of course he lost.

Moreover, his refusal seems to have alienated many of the influential persons who had given him orders; and, in spite of his growing fame, he soon began to find his commissions for portraits falling off. It is probable too that his extravagance and careless manner of life had led him into some pecuniary embarrassment. One is, therefore, not surprised to find that when, later in the same year, the King suggested that he should go to Florence and paint a picture of the Tribuna, he accepted the offer with alacrity. It was arranged that Zoffany was to receive 300l. a year while he was employed on the picture;

* His portraits of Dr Johnson. George Steevens, and Benjamin Stillingfleet probably all belong to this time.

and the smallness of the figure seems to show that he was in some need of money or had special reasons for wishing to leave the country; or perhaps one may infer (and subsequent events also point to this view) that he had other inducements to travel, and did not intend to confine himself solely to the subject of his commission. Whatever his aim, the undertaking proved in many ways a most unfortunate one for him; and he never in all the long life that remained to him materially improved the position, which, during the first years of his residence, he had won for himself in English art.

One excellent thing, however, his new venture gave him-the girl who was to prove a faithful and affectionate wife to him during the last thirty-eight years of his life. Mrs Papendieck tells a romantic story of his courtship, which (in spite of one conflicting statement) one cannot but believe to be substantially true. It seems that, when the Italian visit was decided on, he was conducting an intrigue with a poor girl of only fourteen years old. She, finding herself to be with child, and in danger of losing all hold of her betrayer, concealed herself on board the ship which was to carry him to Italy, and only disclosed herself when they were well upon their way. Zoffany was evidently touched by her situation and her courage. At any rate he lost no time in amending the injury he had done her. Immediately on landing he caused enquiries to be made as to his first wife, and, on discovering that she had died in Germany, straightway married the mother of his child. The second Mrs Zoffany seems to have been a good and faithful wife, and to have lived happily with her erratic husband, who did his best to atone for his first usage of her and always made a point of seeing that his friends treated her with proper respect. Indeed she and her husband soon became favourites at the Court of the Duke of Tuscany. She was beautiful, and, though greatly his inferior in station, quickly picked up enough education to hold her own in any society.

Unfortunately their married happiness was early blighted by the loss of their little boy, a blow from which the poor sensitive painter never wholly recovered. The immediate result seems to have been that he threw himself feverishly into his work and the social life of Florence.

Sir Horace Mann was English Minister there at the time; and, through his influence and that of the Duke, the Zoffanys were able to share in the best social life of the capital. The painter himself travelled widely and was made a member of the Academies of Tuscany, Parma and Bologna. The Duke introduced him to his cousin, the Emperor Joseph II, when the latter came to visit Florence; and Zoffany painted the Emperor so much to Joseph's satisfaction that the entire Royal Family were also ordered to sit to him (the picture is now in the Royal Gallery at Vienna), and he was in 1778 rewarded with the title of Baron of the Holy Roman Empire.*

But the strain of these various labours told on Zoffany's health. He had a stroke of paralysis and a complete breakdown, which lasted for some time; and in the end, partly by reason of his illness, but also partly, it would appear, owing to the remarkable popularity of his art, his stay in Italy was protracted to seven years.† When at last he returned to England, the King was not unnaturally angry: he disapproved of his subjects accepting foreign orders, and was indignant at the suggestion that the 300l. a year should be allowed for the whole period of Zoffany's absence. It was vain for the artist to protest that the intense cold of the Gallery, which was the subject of his picture, made it impossible for him to work there for any length of time at a sitting, and that as it was he had worked himself into a paralysis. He had to give up his claim to the 3007. a year altogether and fall back on a request for the travelling expenses of himself and his wife. Even this suggestion was unfavourably received, the King objecting that, when he gave the commission, there was no Mrs Zoffany on the tapis. How the dispute ended is not known; but it is certain that, so far as the King was concerned, the journey resulted in very little pecuniary profit to the artist.

The next four years, however, seem to have been prosperous ones for Zoffany, although it must have

* The portrait in the Uffizi Gallery, already mentioned, is a further proof of the esteem in which he was held in Italy.

† An example of his work in Florence is the Cowper group shown at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1913-14.

He

taken him some time to reassemble his clientèle. bought a house at Strand on the Green, Chiswick, which is still standing, and bears his name. There his wife

...

and the two daughters who had been born to them in Italy settled down; and close by he established Mrs Zoffany's aged mother, whom he maintained till the end of her life. He also had rooms in Albemarle Street, where many amateurs came to see his work. Walpole tells us that he saw there a delightful piece of Wilkes looking-no, squinting-at his daughter . . . a caricature of the devil acknowledging Miss Sin in Milton.' 'Horridly like' is the more laconic comment jotted down on his programme when this delightful piece' was exhibited at the Academy in 1782. From the same source we hear of Zoffany being robbed on the highway on the same evening as Walpole and Lady Browne, who were on their way to dine with the Duchess of Montrose. Lady Browne had the presence of mind to hand the thief a purse of bad money which she always carried with her in case of accidents, while Walpole slipped his watch up his sleeve and escaped with the loss of a few guineas.

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Nor is this the only evidence we have of the artist's prosperity and position. He found a valuable new patron in Charles Townley; and Reynolds and Zoffany were familiar figures at the Connoisseurs' Sunday dinners. It was during this time that he painted the well-known picture of the Townley Library, showing its owner, D'Ancarville, Charles Greville and Thomas Astle surrounded by the famous marbles. It was probably at this time too that he became intimate with Gainsborough and painted the charming little head of him that now hangs in the National Gallery. He also formed a close friendship with Johann Christian Bach and his partner in the Cornelys Concerts, Karl Friederich Abel. Both these men were virtuosi, Bach on the pianoforte and Abel on the viol de gamba. Indeed, the latter was such a master of his instrument that he was appointed chamber-musician to Queen Charlotte, and used to maintain with mock solemnity that there was only 'one God and one Abel.' Both, however, seem to have been jolly, good-natured, humorous, unassuming fellows; and Bach at least was cursed with a Bohemian improvidence which Zoffany must have found congenial. He Vol. 227.-No. 450.

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and his circle used to repair often to Angelo's fencing school and to the elder Angelo's coffee-house at Acton.

The younger Angelo tells a story pleasantly illustrative of Zoffany's rapidity of execution. There was in the garden of the Acton house a tall blank wall which had been decorated by an Italian artist named Calze with a painting eighteen feet high, depicting an Italian scene with a Roman arch and avenue of cypresses. This painting had become damaged, and Zoffany was engaged in restoring it on one of the Fast days' or days of intercession and mourning during the early years of the American War. The Bohemian fraternity of London did not, it seems, take these fast days' very seriously; and Bach and Abel had come down to Acton to celebrate the day of intercession in their own fashion. As they were sitting in Angelo's parlour window, they saw coming along the road that bordered the garden two other gentlemen even stouter and more comfortable than themselves, Captain Grose, author of the famous slang dictionary, and Alexander Greese, teacher of drawing to the young princesses, and, by a corruption which needs no explanation, familiarly known as 'Jack Grease.' Zoffany, too, saw them over the hedge, and on the spur of the moment dashed off their portraits under the Roman arch with such happy inspiration that Angelo, Bach and Abel, as they escorted the newcomers down the garden walk a few minutes later, started in amazement, as though actually confronted with the wraiths or doubles of their two fat friends. Grose, a jolly fellow, took it capitally, but Jack Grease' was very touchy on the subject of his size, and the joke went near to ruin his 'fast day' for him.

Poor Bach's end was a sad one. In spite of his talents as a virtuoso and composer, and in spite of his wife's popularity as a singer, his extravagance ruined him. He fell into bad health and died in the year 1782. Zoffany proved a faithful friend to him, and with Abel and one or two others supported him entirely during the last months of his life, supplying him regularly with food cooked in his own kitchen. No doubt the jolly musician and his wife had often been guests of his at Strand, or

* Some admirable drawings by Greese are to be seen at S. Kensington.