Henry Angelo
- Artist: Mather Brown
- Date: circa 1790
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 30 1/2 in. x 25 1/2 in. (775 mm x 648 mm)
- Portrays: Henry Charles William Angelo
- Museum: The National Portrait Gallery
- Collection record: The National Portrait Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is “Henry Angelo” by Mather Brown, painted in oil on canvas around 1790. You see a poised gentleman wearing a richly embroidered fencing jacket; his left hand rests on the hilt of a sabre, while leather gloves sit neatly at his wrist. Brown captures the texture of cloth and metal with deft brushwork that gives the jacket’s sheen and the sabre’s polished blade almost three‑dimensional quality.
The sitter is Henry Charles William Angelo, a fencing master who took over his father Domenico Tremonando’s academy in Bond Street, London, in 1785. Brown places him in a setting that hints at the club‑like atmosphere of the school, where aristocrats and writers such as Byron, Fox and Sheridan dived into swordplay. The portrait reflects both Angelo’s status as master and the fashionable sporting culture of late Georgian London.
See it in person
Henry Angelo is in the collection of The National Portrait Gallery at St Martin's Place, 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.
