ZOFFANY, Johann.

Tiger Hunting in the East Indies.

This Print represents the attack & death of the Royal Tiger, near Chandernagur, in the Province of Bengal, in the Year 1788, by a party of Gentlemen & their Attendants mounted on Elephants according to the custom of that Country. For Description s

Stock Code

104698

London, Robt Laurie and Jas Whittle, No. 53, Fleet Street.1802

£3,750

'In 1784 Zoffany was persuaded by Lady Day, wife of the Advocate-General, to take part in a tiger hunt at Chinsura with a view to his recording the event for a subsequent painting. This hunt was organised by her brother Henry Ramus, styled the 'Nimrod of Bengal', and was afterwards fully described by Sir John Day in a letter to Sir William Jones.

The date on the engraving, 1788, does not connect accurately with the known dates of the persons in the painting being in India, and it is more likely that the composition is based on a hunt of 1786 or 87. Those identified include Sir John Macpherson, later Governor-General, with Zoffany in the howdah on the right, while that on the left carries General Sir John Carnac and John Stables, Member of the Committee at Fort William. The whereabouts of the original painting is unknown although there is

Description

Engraving with mezzotint 534 x 670 mm., engraved by Richard Earlom, short tears, some going into image, expertly repaired.
Framed and glazed, overall size: 80 cm by 64.5 cm by 4.5 cm.