![]() ![]() Soon, he got acquainted with many powerful citizens and obtained the patronage of the Archbishop of York Robert Hay Drummond who later introduced him to King George III. In August 1763, the artist went to London expecting it would be a short visit. Among the first commissions he received was the portrait of Mistress Ross of Lancaster. While his three-year stint in the country, West visited Rome, Florence and Venice.īenjamin West started his career as a portraitist painter in Pennsylvania where he had worked till 1759. In 1760, Benjamin West went to Italy in order to explore the art of such great masters as Titian, Raphael among others. As to the artistic training, he was mostly an autodidact. He introduced West to the Pennsylvanian establishment. In 1756, he was briefly taught by the first provost of the College of Philadelphia William Smith. Benjamin revealed his passion for drawing at an early age and created his early portraits as a teenager.īenjamin West had little formal education. Later, the family relocated to Newtown Township, Pennsylvania where his father owned the Square Tavern. He was the tenth child in a family of John West and Sarah Pearson. He served as a historical painter to George III and taught many American artists in London.īenjamin West was born on October 10, 1738, in Springfield, Pennsylvania, United States. In addition to historical events, West used religious and mythological topics in his canvases. He began as the portraitist, but it was historical painting which made him known. One of the later paintings by Benjamin West was ‘Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity From the Sky’.īenjamin West was an American artist of the late eighteenth century who represented American Colonial art. ![]() Besides, the artist collaborated with the novelist John Galt on his personal biography. Having a success, the work was followed by ‘Death on the Pale Horse’ presented to the public in 1817. His patrons included William Beckford and a Quaker hospital in Philadelphia which commissioned him a ‘Christ Healing the Sick’. The last period of his life, at the early 19th century, West worked on religious large-scale paintings and portraits. While in Paris, he exhibited his ‘Death on the Pale Horse’ which somehow became the forerunner of French Romantic painting. The artist had chaired the Academy till the end of his life except for 1805.Īt the beginning of the new decade, Benjamin West visited the capital of France for the first time. In 1792, he succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds on his post of the President of the Royal Academy of Arts. From 1791 until his death, West was Surveyor of the King's Pictures. While serving at the court, the artist painted some number of the portraits of the royal family, including ‘Portrait of George’, ‘Prince of Wales’, ‘Prince Frederick, Duke of York’ and, helped by six full-time assistants, worked on the decoration of various churches and castles around the United Kingdom, among which were Saint George's Hall at Windsor Castle and Saint Paul's Church, in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham. The King assured the painter of financial support, so he wasn’t obliged to earn money through portraits. In 1772, West became a historical painter to the court of George III and had held this post till the 1790s. In 1769, King George III commissioned West ‘The Departure of Regulus from Rome’.Ī year later, Benjamin West created one of his most known canvases called ‘The Death of General Wolfe’ exhibited at the Royal Academy the following year. It was the period when his classical subjects such as ‘Orestes and Pylades’ and ‘The Continence of Scipio’ were good met by the public. The first paintings made in the country, ‘Angelica and Medora’, a portrait of General Monckton and ‘Cymon and Iphigenia’, were demonstrated at the exhibition organized in 1764 in the Incorporated Society of Artists (later Society of Artists of Great Britain).īenjamin West’s ideas on decorating the Saint Paul's Cathedral were turned down when his project of the altarpiece for Saint Stephen Walbrook was approved. Most of the time, West produced the canvases on historical and religious topics, portraying sometimes as well. (age 81) Springfield, Pennsylvania, United Statesīenjamin West started his career as a portraitist painter in Pennsylvania where he had worked till 1759.
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