It was named after Johann Zoffany (1733-1810) a painter born in Regensburg, Germany.
Zoffany first migrated to England in 1758 and remained until 1772 often in most penurious circumstances, but was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1769.
He returned to England from 1779 to 1783 when he went to India but returned to England in 1790 and lived at Strand-on-the-Green in his later years and is buried in Kew churchyard.
