Colonel Mordaunt’s Cock Match
- Artist: Johan Zoffany
- Date: c.1784–6
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 1039 x 1500 x 20 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Colonel Mordaunt’s Cock Match” by Johan Zoffany, painted around 1784–6. The work is a large oil on canvas that captures a cock‑fight staged at Lucknow in April 1784, a real event that drew both Indian courtiers and East India Company officials into a single, chaotic tableau. In the foreground the two fowl—one belonging to the Nawab Asaf‑ud‑Daula, the other to Colonel John Mordaunt—clash while a host of spectators, musicians, and even an elephant with a carriage hover in the background. Zoffany uses the scene to comment on the Company’s “taking part” culture, hinting that while the British bird dominates the fight, the Nawab’s influence had already been largely stripped away by the colonial machinery.
Notice how Mordaunt stands upright in white evening dress, his posture commanding, whereas the Nawab leans forward, almost in shadow, his eagerness less pronounced. The crowd’s mix—Indian, European, and mixed—adds a cosmopolitan texture, yet the painting subtly underlines the power imbalance of Anglo‑Indian relations. Zoffany’s composition, full of small figures and lively gestures, invites viewers to consider both the spectacle and the underlying tensions of empire during that era.
See it in person
Colonel Mordaunt’s Cock Match is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
