JOHAN JOSEPH ZOFFANY, R.A. | PORTRAIT OF MAJOR-GENERAL CLAUDE MARTIN (1735-1800)

Major-General Claude Martin (1735-1800)

Benjamin Wolff (1790-1866) Collection, until sold

'The Wolff Collection' Sale, Bruun Rasmussen, Copenhagen, 30 May 2018, part of lot 437 

Zoffany’s gift: 1799

Exceptionally, this sale includes fourteen works on paper by Johan Zoffany, R.A (lots, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 42, 43, 70, 71, 89, 90, 91, 103 and 104). The drawings once formed part of a larger group of fifty-three works that Zoffany assembled in the late 1790s and that, in 1799, he sent to India for the attention of his old friend Major-General Claude Martin (1735-1800), a Frenchman whom he had met while working on the subcontinent during the previous decade.

Zoffany’s drawings for Martin were – as with the present group of fourteen – diverse in theme. With images derived from the biblical, mythological, historical and modern worlds, as well as a number of sensitive and intimate portraits, it is thought that the contents of his gift were designed to reflect both men’s interests, humours and tastes.

Claude Martin died in 1800 with no heirs, so his executors arranged for his extensive collections to be sold. The drawing’s next documented owner was Benjamin Wolff (1790-1866), a brilliant Danish lawyer, who lived in Calcutta between 1817 and 1829. During his time in India, Wolff amassed a great fortune and also began to build what would become one of Denmark’s most revered art collections. In 1829, he moved back to Denmark and bought a substantial house called Engelholm Manor on southern Zealand. Here, he housed his collections which, by the end of his life, comprised more than 2,000 drawings from both the European and Indian schools.

After his death in 1866, Wolff’s drawings remained with his descendants for a further five generations. In May 2018, Brunn Rasmussen Auctioneers in Copenhagen held a major sale within which the Zoffanys appeared as one lot and were acquired by the present owner. Despite the fame of Wolff’s collection, its contents had never been published and, until that point, scholars had been unaware of the existence of Zoffany’s drawings. Their re-emergence has caused great excitement in academic circles, as not only does the group triple the number of known surviving works on paper by Zoffany, but the images themselves also act as windows into the mind of one of the greatest artists of the Age of Enlightenment.

This drawing:

By the time that Johan Zoffany met Claude Martin in the 1780s, this remarkable man had already been living in India for more than three decades.

Born in Lyon, France, in 1735, he was the son of Fleury Martin, a casket maker, and Anne Vaginay, a butcher’s daughter. In 1751, at the age of sixteen, he joined the French Compagnie des Indes and was posted to the subcontinent.

Originally, he fought with the French against Britain’s East India Company during the second and third Carnatic Wars. However, by 1760, he had become disillusioned by his countrymen’s long-term prospects in India and, in that year, he defected to the British and joined their Free French Company.

Over time, he gained a formidable reputation as a military tactician and administrator, and after serving in Calcutta and Bengal, in 1776, he was posted to Lucknow. There he caught the attention of the local ruler, Asaf-ud-daulah, Nawab of Awadh, who appointed him Superintendent of the Arsenal.

Having recently moved his court from Faizabad to Lucknow, the Nawab was busy expanding his new capital and, although Martin had no formal training, he became one of the city’s principal architects.

While in the service of the Nawab, Martin acquired a very substantial fortune. He built himself a palace, Constantia, which he sumptuously decorated. The palace contained an extensive library of over 4,000 volumes, and diverse collections of scientific instruments, fossils, minerals and stuffed animals. He also accumulated many paintings and drawings that he commissioned both from local artists and from some of the European painters, such as Zoffany, who had made the long journey to northern India.

Martin never married and he arranged that, after his death, his executors should deploy the great majority of his vast wealth in helping the poor. He also stipulated that a significant part of his legacy should be directed towards the establishment of schools in Lucknow, Calcutta and his birthplace of Lyon. These institutions continue today under the name ‘La Martinière’.