Explore: Henry Bembridge

(1744 - 1812)

American portraitist Henry Bembridge was born in Philadelphia. He came to London in 1769 and exhibited his portrait of Corsican patriot and leader Pasquale Paoli (1725-1807) at the Free Society that year. Bembridge showed two portraits (‘Dr Franklin of Philadelphia’ and ‘Portrait of a Gentleman’) at the Royal Academy in 1770, when he was living at Panton Square in Soho. In 1770 he returned to the US.