Henry Walton

Little is known of Henry Walton's early life; his earliest recorded portraits date from 1768. In 1770, he began studying art at the Maiden Lane Academy, in Covent Garden, London. During the 1770s, Walton worked as a portraitist, painting portraits in oil and producing miniatures. Among his most celebrated sitters were Edward Gibbon, the Revd William Gilpin, Horatio Walpole, first earl of Orford, and Lord Cornwallis. In the 1780s, Walton had some success making genre paintings. By the early 1790s, he was established as a picture dealer and adviser to some major private collectors.

Text © National Portrait Gallery, London