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This portrait of Lord Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), by the English artist Richard Westall, is an oil-on-canvas work painted in 1813. Byron was an English poet, peer, and politician who became a revolutionary in the Greek War of Independence. He contributed generously to this cause, and despite his military inexperience, took a section of the rebel army under his own command. He fell ill while planning an attack on the Turkish-held fortress of Lepanto, rallied a little, developed a fever, and died a few weeks later.
This is one of a number of portraits of Byron painted by Richard Westall, who also painted Horatio Nelson, John Milton, and other well-known figures, as well as landscapes in watercolour and book illustrations. This picture hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London.Painting credit: Richard Westall