Benjamin West, RA (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.

Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky c. 1816 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
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. 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 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 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1756, West's patron, a gunsmith named William Henry, encouraged him to design a Death of Socrates based on an engraving in Charles Rollin's Ancient History; the resulting composition, which significantly differs from West's 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 patronize West, offering him education and, more importantly, connections with wealthy and politically connected Pennsylvanians. During this time West met John Wollaston, a famous painter who 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]

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

Italy

In 1760, sponsored by Smith and William Allen, reputed to be the wealthiest man in Philadelphia, West traveled to Italy where 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 the neo-classical artists Anton Rafael Mengs and Gavin Hamilton.[6]

England

As painted by Gilbert Stuart, 1783-84
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. In London he was introduced to Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Richard Wilson.[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 Monkton, 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, at St Martin-in-the-Fields.[9]

Dr Markham, then Headmaster of Westminster School, introduced him to Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke,[10] the bishops of Bristol and Worcester, and Robert Hay Drummond, Archbishop of York. All three prelates commissioned work from him.[11] 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.[12] At around this time he also received acclaim for his classical subjects, such as Orestes and Pylades and The Continence of Scipio[12][13]

Benjamin West was known in England as the American Raphael.

Royal patronage
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 the king, George III, to patronise West.[14] 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.[15] The academy came into being in 1768, with Joshua Reynolds as its president.

In 1772, King George appointed him historical painter to the court[16] at an annual fee of £1,000.[9] He painted a series of eight large canvases showing scenes from the life of Edward III for St George's Hall at Windsor Castle,[17] 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.[9] He also painted nine portraits of members of the royal family,[9] including two of the king himself. He was Surveyor of the King's Pictures from 1791 until his death.

The Death of General Wolfe

The Death of General Wolfe, 1770
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
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.[9][18] 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.[9]

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.[19][20] It shows the Conversion of Paul.

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

Many American artists studied under him in London, including Augustus Earle, Ralph Earl, Samuel Morse, Charles Willson Peale, Rembrandt Peale, Matthew Pratt, Gilbert Stuart, John Trumbull, and Thomas Sully.