English painter of portraits, historical and literary events, Richard Westall was born in 1765 in Reepham near Norwich. In 1772 Westall moved to London where he was apprenticed to a silver engraver in 1779. He began his studies a the Royal Academy School of Arts in 1785 and exhibited at the Academy regularly between 1784 and 1836.

Westall is best known for several portraits of Lord Byron who greatly admired his work, once stating that "the brush has beat the poetry."  One of these portraits hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London, another at Hughenden Manor and a third in the House of Lords. He was also Queen Victoria's drawing master.

Westall's works are in the collections of the National Maritime Museum, Sir John Soane's Museum, the British Museum and the Morgan Library and Museum.