How you can use this image

This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).

Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.

The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

Sir Frederick Augustus Abel was a chemist and explosives specialist who, with the chemist Sir James Dewar, invented cordite, which was later adopted as the standard explosive of the British army. Abel studied chemistry at the Royal Polytechnic Institution and in 1845 became one of the original twenty-six students of A. W. von Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry. In 1852 he was appointed lecturer in chemistry at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, succeeding Michael Faraday. From 1854 until 1888 Abel served as ordnance chemist at the Chemical Establishment of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, establishing himself as the leading British authority on explosives.

National Portrait Gallery, London

London

Title

Sir Frederick Augustus Abel, 1st Bt

Date

1900

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 119.8 x W 99.1 cm

Accession number

4926

Acquisition method

Purchased, 1973

Work type

Painting

National Portrait Gallery, London

St Martin’s Place, London, Greater London WC2H 0HE England

This venue is open to the public. Not all artworks are on display. If you want to see a particular artwork, please contact the venue.

View venue

Artist or maker

Frank Bramley

1857–1915

View profile

Alexander S. Leslie Melville of Lincoln (1829–1919) Usher Gallery
Colonel Sir Samuel Alexander Sadler, JP, VD, MP (1842–1911), Mayor of Middlesbrough (1877, 1896 and 1910) Middlesbrough Town Hall
Russell James Kerr Senior (1832–1910), Chairman of Quarter Sessions (1889–1904) Gloucester Shire Hall
Neapolitan Fisher Boy Usher Gallery
Self Portrait Usher Gallery
Weaving Nets Usher Gallery
The Grasmere Rushbearing National Trust, The Lake District
13 more