John Mcewen comments on Cock Match

GERMAN-BORN Johan Zoffany (Zoffanij) was the son of a Catholic court architect to the 3rd Prince Thurn and Taxis. Talent for drawing led to his training in Germany and Italy. He returned briefly to his home country to be a provincial court painter before, impulsive by nature, moving to London in 1760. There, his social skills and artistic mastery of several styles and genres soon led to success. The German Queen Charlotte favoured him and George III nominated him for the newly founded Royal Academy.

Fashions changed, however, and his extravagance—thames musical parties, liveried servants—required support. The new market in British India beckoned. In the 1780s he went there—and restored his fortune.

This Indian ‘conversation piece’ centres on Col John (Jack) Mordaunt, an illegitimate son of Charles Mordaunt, 4th Earl of Peterborough. The amiable Jack went to India and rose to command a regiment. A shared passion for the gambling sport of cockfighting, popular with poor and rich, made him the favourite of the extravagant Nawab Wazir of Oudh, who soon owed him money, but refused to honour his debts: ‘My dear Mordaunt, if I were to pay you, you would go to England, which must not be.’ Mordaunt never did go back.

Group scenes had identification keys. Here, excited Indian spectators surround the demarcated cockpit, where languid guests sit under the canopy shading the Nawab’s cushioned white seat. Mordaunt stands in white evening wear to the left of centre; the Nawab approaches him to make a wager. Also in white is the seated Zoffany (top right), portecrayon in hand. The artist Ozias Humphry stands behind him. The box holds the birds’ lethal spurs.

The painting was commissioned by Warren Hastings, Governor-general of Bengal, who is not present.