Madame Cigali the Famous Female Fencer from Rome at Henry Angelo's Fencing Academy

Madame Cigali the Famous Female Fencer from Rome at Henry Angelo's Fencing Academy

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Reference

1504

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)
Madame Cigali the Famous Female Fencer from Rome at Henry Angelo's Fencing Academy
Pen and grey ink and watercolour
14.4 by 23.8 cm., 5 3/4 by 9 1/2 in.

Rowlandson was evidently intrigued by the idea of a man and woman fencing as he drew at least five such studies. One in the Dent collection depicted Henry Angelo and `Madame Cain'. `Madame Culloni and Mons. Renault' in Paris is recorded in the Dent Collection with another version in the Yale Center for British Art. Another, of `Madame Kelu famous Fencer Native of Italy 1816' was sold at Sotheby's on 22nd March 1979, lot 57.

Henry Charles William Angelo (1756-1835) was a close friend of Rowlandson for over fifty years and the artist depicted his Fencing Academy on a number of occasions. Angelo inherited the Academy from his father, the famous Italian swordsman Domenico Angelo in 1785. They were located over the entrance to the pit door of the Opera House, Haymarket but were destroyed by fire on 17th June 1789 when Angelo moved the Academy to no.13 Bond St. It became more akin to a gentleman's club and Charles James Fox, Sheridan and Byron were regular attendees.

Dimensions:

Height 14.4 cm / 5 "
Width 23.8 cm / 9 12"
Provenance

Leicester Galleries, London