The Johan Zoffany exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts has a splendid picture of All Saints Fulham in 1781.
The Sharp Family was the musical family of George III’s doctor who lived in a house next to the church. Church and bow fronted house are seen in the background of the painting depicting the family playing instruments on a barge.
Zoffany married his wife Mary at St Pancras Old Church in 1805. They had been together for years but it seem that the artist was at first not sure that his first wife in Germany had died. The couple been living together for so long as ‘man and wife’ that Mary started signing the register ‘Mary Zoff..’ before remembering that she was really still been ‘Mary Thamas’.
Johan Zoffany RA: Society Observed is at the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly from Saturday 10 March to Sunday 10 June; admission £9 (conc £7).