Colonel Mordaunt's Cock Match by Zoffany

Acquisition of painting by Johan Zoffany (1733-1810) circa 1784-6, oil on canvas. The picture shows an unruly sporting event at the court of the Nawab (Governor) of Oudh in Northern India. It highlights the looser moral codes of colonial life. In Britain, cockfighting was frowned on as cruel, but in colonial India the 'normal' rules of morality did not apply. One cock belongs to the Nawab (standing in the centre) and one to the British mercenary, Colonel Mordaunt (left, in white), commander of the Nawab's bodyguard.