Benjamin West

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For other people named Benjamin West, see Benjamin West (disambiguation).
Benjamin West
BenjaminWestNGA.gif
Self Portrait of Benjamin West, ca. 1763
Born (1738-10-10)October 10, 1738
Springfield, Province of Pennsylvania
Died March 11, 1820(1820-03-11) (aged 81)
London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Known for historical painting
Patron(s) William Henry
King George III

Benjamin West PRA (October 10, 1738 – March 11, 1820) was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence. He was the second president of the Royal Academy in London, serving from 1792 to 1805 and 1806 to 1820. He was offered a knighthood by the British Crown, but declined it, believing that he should instead be made a peer.[1]

Early life[edit]

As painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1783–84

West was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, in a house that is now in the borough of Swarthmore on the campus of Swarthmore College,[2] as the tenth child of an innkeeper and his wife. The family later moved to Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, where his father was the proprietor of the Square Tavern, still standing in that town. West told the novelist John Galt, with whom, late in his life, he collaborated on a memoir, The Life and Studies of Benjamin West (1816, 1820) that, when he was a child, Native Americans showed him how to make paint by mixing some clay from the river bank with bear grease in a pot. Benjamin West was an autodidact; while excelling at the arts, "he had little [formal] education and, even when president of the Royal Academy, could scarcely spell".[3]

From 1746 to 1759, West worked in Pennsylvania, mostly painting portraits. While West was in Lancaster in 1756, his patron, a gunsmith named William Henry, encouraged him to paint a Death of Socrates based on an engraving in Charles Rollin's Ancient History. His resulting composition, which significantly differs from the source, has been called "the most ambitious and interesting painting produced in colonial America".[4] Dr William Smith, then the provost of the College of Philadelphia, saw the painting in Henry's house and decided to become West's patron, offering him education and, more importantly, connections with wealthy and politically connected Pennsylvanians. During this time West met John Wollaston, a famous painter who had immigrated from London. West learned Wollaston's techniques for painting the shimmer of silk and satin, and also adopted some of "his mannerisms, the most prominent of which was to give all his subjects large almond-shaped eyes, which clients thought very chic".[5]

Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky c. 1816 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

West was a close friend of Benjamin Franklin, whose portrait he painted. Franklin was the godfather of West's second son, Benjamin.

Italy[edit]

In 1760, sponsored by Smith and William Allen, reputed to be the wealthiest man in Philadelphia, West traveled to Italy. He expanded his repertoire by copying the works of Italian painters such as Titian and Raphael. In Rome he met, and came under the influence of a number of international neo-classical artists including German-born Anton Rafael Mengs, Scottish Gavin Hamilton, and Austrian Angelica Kauffman.[6]

England[edit]

Self-Portrait (National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.)

In August 1763, West arrived in England,[7] on what he initially intended as a visit on his way back to America.[7] In fact, he never returned to America. He stayed for a month at Bath with William Allen, who was also in the country, and visited his half-brother Thomas West at Reading at the urging of his father. In London he was introduced to Richard Wilson and his student Joshua Reynolds.[8] He moved into a house in Bedford Street, Covent Garden. The first picture he painted in England Angelica and Medora, along with a portrait of General Monckton,[9] and his Cymon and Iphigenia, painted in Rome, were shown at the exhibition in Spring Gardens in 1764.

In 1765 he married Elizabeth Shewell, an American to whom he became engaged in Philadelphia, at St Martin-in-the-Fields.[10]

Dr Markham, then Headmaster of Westminster School, introduced West to Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke,[11] Thomas Newton, Bishop of Bristol, James Johnson, Bishop of Worcester, and Robert Hay Drummond, Archbishop of York. All three prelates commissioned work from him.[12] In 1766 West proposed a scheme to decorate St Paul's Cathedral with paintings. It was rejected by the Bishop of London, but his idea of painting an altarpiece for St Stephen Walbrook was accepted.[13] At around this time he also received acclaim for his classical subjects, such as Orestes and Pylades and The Continence of Scipio[13][14]

Benjamin West was known in England as the "American Raphael". His Raphaelesque painting of Archangel Michael Binding the Devil is in the collection of Trinity College, Cambridge.[15]

Royal patronage[edit]

Drummond tried to raise subscriptions to fund an annuity for West, so that he could give up portraiture and devote himself to entirely to more ambitious compositions. Having failed in this, he tried—with greater success—to convince King George III to patronise West.[16] The king's first commission was a painting of the departure of Regulus from Rome. West was soon on good terms with the king, and the two men conducted long discussions on the state of art in England, including the idea of the establishment of a Royal Academy.[17] The academy came into being in 1768, with West one of the primary leaders of an opposition group formed out of the existing Society of Artists of Great Britain. Joshua Reynolds was its first president.

In 1772, King George appointed him historical painter to the court[18] at an annual fee of £1,000.[10] He painted a series of eight large canvases showing scenes from the life of Edward III for St George's Hall at Windsor Castle,[19] and proposed a cycle of 36 works on the theme of "the progress of revealed religion" for a chapel at the castle, of which 28 were eventually executed.[10] He also painted nine portraits of members of the royal family,[10] including two of the king himself. He was Surveyor of the King's Pictures from 1791 until his death.

The Death of General Wolfe, 1770

The Death of General Wolfe[edit]

He painted his most famous, and possibly most influential painting, The Death of General Wolfe, in 1770, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1771. Although originally snubbed by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the famous portrait painter and President of the Royal Academy, and others as over ambitious, the painting became one of the most frequently reproduced images of the period. It returned to the French and Indian War setting of his General Johnson Saving a Wounded French Officer from the Tomahawk of a North American Indian of 1768.

West became known for his large scale history paintings, which use expressive figures, colours and compositional schemes to help the spectator to identify with the scene represented. West called this "epic representation". In 1806 he produced The Death of Nelson, to commemorate Horatio Nelson's death at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Later religious painting[edit]

The east window at St Paul's Church, Birmingham

St Paul's Church, in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, has an important enamelled stained glass east window made in 1791 by Francis Eginton, modelled on an altarpiece painted c. 1786 by West, now in the Dallas Museum of Art.[20][21] It shows the Conversion of Paul. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1791.[22]

Following a loss of royal patronage at the beginning of the 19th century, West began a series of large-scale religious works. The first, Christ Healing the Sick was originally intended as a gift to a Quaker hospital in Philadelphia; instead he sold it to the British Institution for £3,000, which in turn presented it to the National Gallery.[10][23] West then made a copy to send to Philadelphia. The success of the picture led him to paint a series of even larger works, including his Death on a Pale Horse, exhibited in 1817.[10]

Royal Academy[edit]

West became president of the Royal Academy on the death of Reynolds in 1792. He resigned in 1805, to be replaced by his rival James Wyatt. However West was once again elected to the post the following year, and held it until his death.

Pupils[edit]

Many American artists studied under him in London, including Ralph Earl, Samuel Morse, Robert Fulton, Charles Willson Peale, Rembrandt Peale, Matthew Pratt, Gilbert Stuart, John Trumbull, Washington Allston, and Thomas Sully.[24]

Death[edit]

West died at his house in Newman Street, London, on 11 March 1820, and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.[10]

Gallery[edit]

  • Isaac's Servant Tying the Bracelet on Rebecca's Arm, 1775

  • Pylades and Orestes Brought as Victims before Iphigenia, 1766

  • Joshua passing the River Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant, 1800

  • Omnia Vincit Amor, 1809

  • Self-Portrait, 1819

  • Death of a Stag or Alexander III of Scotland Rescued from the Fury of a Stag by the Intrepidity of Colin Fitzgerald, 1786

Works[edit]

External video
Benjamin west Death wolfe noble savage.jpg
Introducing Benjamin West, Royal Academy of Art[1]
  • John Sedley, view
  • Portrait of a Gentleman, view
  • Presentation of the Queen of Sheba at the Court of King Solomon, view
  • The Envoys Returning from the Promised Land, view

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Introducing Benjamin West". Royal Academy of Art. Retrieved February 19, 2013. 
  2. ^ Benjamin West Explore Pennsylvania
  3. ^ Hughes, Robert (1997). American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America. Alfred A. Knopf. p. 70. ISBN 0-679-42627-2
  4. ^ Allen Staley, “Benjamin West,” in Benjamin West: American Painter at the English Court (Baltimore, 1989), 28. For more on this painting, see Scott Paul Gordon, “Martial Art: Benjamin West’s Death of Socrates, Colonial Politics, and the Puzzles of Patronage,” William and Mary Quarterly 65, 1 (2008): 65-100.
  5. ^ Hughes (1997), American Visions, p. 71
  6. ^ Lister, Raymond (1989). British Romantic Painting. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521356879. 
  7. ^ a b Galt, volume 2 p.1
  8. ^ Galt, volume 2, p.2
  9. ^ BBC - Your Paintings - Lieutenant-General The Honourable Robert Monckton
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Knight, Charles, ed. (1858). "West, Benjamin". The English Cyclopædia. Biography – Volume VI. London: Bradbury and Evans. 
  11. ^ Galt, volume 2, pp.6–7
  12. ^ Galt, volume 2, p.9
  13. ^ a b Galt, p.15
  14. ^ Now in the collections of the Tate Gallery and the Fitzwilliam Museum respectively
  15. ^ "Trinity College, University of Cambridge". BBC Your Paintings. 
  16. ^ Galt, volume 2, p.20
  17. ^ Galt, volume 2, pp.33–4
  18. ^ Birmingham Museum of Art (2010). Birmingham Museum of Art: Guide to the Collection. London, UK: GILES. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-904832-77-5. Retrieved 2011-07-19. 
  19. ^ Black, Jeremy (2007). Culture in Eighteenth-Century England: A Subject for Taste. London: Continuum. p. 36. ISBN 9781852855345. 
  20. ^ "Dallas Museum of Art, accession number 1990.232". Collections.dallasmuseumofart.org. Retrieved 2012-09-07. 
  21. ^ "St Paul's website - Features of St Paul's Church". Saintpaulbrum.org. Retrieved 2012-09-07. 
  22. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter W". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 28 July 2014. 
  23. ^ This first version was transferred to the Tate Gallery where it was destroyed in a flood in 1928.
  24. ^ "The Joseph Downs Collection". Winterthur Library. Retrieved 2008-03-24. 

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Benjamin West.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article West, Benjamin.
Cultural offices
Preceded by
Joshua Reynolds		 President of the Royal Academy
1792–1805		 Succeeded by
James Wyatt
Preceded by
James Wyatt		 President of the Royal Academy
1806–1820		 Succeeded by
Sir Thomas Lawrence
Authority control
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