Henry Angelo

Inscriptionback to top

Signed in red above his arm on the right: M Brown.

This portraitback to top

Sold in 1976 (with Hone’s portrait of 1769) as an unknown fencer, but the sitter closely resembles the engraving by Scott after J. R. Smith and the figure of Angelo in Rowlandson’s Mr Henry Angelo’s Fencing Academy. Angelo was acquainted with Brown, being the first owner of Brown’s portrait of the celebrated West Indian fencer, Joseph Saint-Georges. [1]

Footnotesback to top

1) See D. Evans, Mather Brown: an early American artist in England, 1982, p 225; H. Angelo, Reminiscences, 1904, II, p 78.

Referenceback to top

Evans 1982
D. Evans, Mather Brown: an early American artist in England, 1982, no.185.

Physical descriptionback to top

Brown eyes, grey hair, wearing a red scarf, a white coat with a black collar, and a yellow glove on his right hand.

Provenanceback to top

L. I. Davidson; Sotheby’s, 14 July 1976, lot 106, bought Leger, from whom purchased 1980.

Exhibitionsback to top

Leger, 18th-century English Paintings, 1978 (5).


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

View all known portraits for Henry Charles William Angelo