Within a very few years of arrival in England, Zoffany was an intimate of the famous actor David Garrick, many of whose celebrated roles he captured in lively depictions of the great man on stage. Thus launched, he came to the attention of the Earl of Bute who recommended him to George III and Queen Charlotte, for whom he painted intimate portraits of the royal children set in the royal family’s new home at Buckingham House. Thus launched, he built up an enviable reputation for ‘conversation’ pieces depicting his clients in relaxed mode, rather than the formal manner of his English contemporaries, Reynolds and Gainsborough.

Zoffany went to Italy with a prized commission from the Queen to paint the famed ‘Tribuna’ Gallery of the Uffizi, to include all the great paintings and sculptures of the Medici collections. He lived in Florence for almost a decade, painting many of the ‘great and good’, yet on his return to London his royal patroness did not approve of the painting. His hopes for a revived career in London dashed, Zoffany sailed for India where he was a tremendous success, depicting both East India Company luminaries and Indian potentates all set against exotic landscapes. Enriched by his time in the East, he returned to London and ceased to paint from 1800 onwards, dying in 1810 – ironically timed to coincide with the end of the ‘Grand Tour’ which he had so magnificently captured in the rejected ‘Tribuna’ painting.