MASP

The father of the subject, Sir Henry Chamberlain, was Consul General in Brazil and England’s Chargé d’ Affairs at the court in Rio de Janeiro from 1815 to 1829, and his epoch making receptions was recorded in the annals of the Catete palace, and confirmed by Lord Amherst, Maria Graham, the baron of Bougainville, among others. Henry, his son (1796-1844), had just joined the Royal Artillery at the time of his stay in Brazil in 1819-1820. An amateur painter, Chamberlain left a comprehensive series of oils and watercolors, mostly landscapes, especially of Rio de Janeiro, as well as scenes of an ethnographic nature of Brazil of that time, much appreciated by Brazilian collectors owing to their historical and documental value. Judging from Henry’s juvenile features, the portrait in question, executed by an unskilled painter, must date back to the years of his stay in Rio de Janeiro.

— Unknown authorship, 1998

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