BENJAMIN WEST (1738-1820)
The first internationally acclaimed American artist, Benjamin West, was recognized at home and in England as the leading American artist of his time. His accomplishments as artist and art teacher were unique. An American expatriate, West was a court painter in England for thirty years, president of the Royal Academy in London for twenty-eight years and an art instructor at the Royal Academy for approximately fifty years.
It all began when a little Quaker boy, Benjamin West was born on October 10, 1738, near Springfield in Chester County not far from Philadelphia. The colonies were still part of the British Empire. Benjamin was the son of John West and Sarah Pearson, his father’s second wife. When his father’s two older brothers emigrated from England to America, ca. 1709, to join a Quaker community in Chester County, Pennsylvania, John remained in England to complete his education in the Quakers school at Uxbridge.
Five years later, in 1714, John West, as a young man, married a Quaker, Elizabeth Beasley, in a Friendly ceremony. After Elizabeth gave birth to their son Thomas, in 1716, John left to join his brothers in America with the idea of his wife and child joining him there. When news reached him of Elizabeth’s death, John West chose to stay in Pennsylvania. Young Thomas remained in London and was raised by family members in England.
Settled in America, in 1718 John West married Sarah Pearson. In their large family of ten children, Benjamin was the youngest. In 1733, five years before Benjamin West was born, his father was licensed as a stagecoach innkeeper. His parents became aware of his natural ability to draw when, at the early age of six, Benjamin West exhibited a talent for sketching. By ten years of age, his artistic efforts included a painting entitled, Landscape with Cow.
An English-born artist, William Williams, recognized West's natural talent. He introduced West to portraiture by showing young West one of the portraits Williams had produced. Williams encouraged West to develop his artistic skills and lent him some books on art. Williams also convinced West's parents that their son had a unique talent that should be nurtured.
While still in his teens, Benjamin West painted portraits on commission. His first painting on an historical theme, The Death of Socrates, c. 1756, was produced before he was twenty. William Henry, a gunsmith and patron of West, suggested he produce the painting based on an engraving entitled “Death of Socrates,” printed in the book Ancient History written by Charles Rollin. West’s painting, on the “Death of Socrates” theme, differed somewhat from the etching in Rollin’s book. His adaptation gained attention and the painting brought him new supporters.
A tragedy occurred in Benjamin West’s family when his mother, Sarah Pearson West, died in 1756. Benjamin’s father was a member of the Society of Friends. John West’s family had been Quakers since 1667. Growing up in a Quaker community had some interesting manifestations. A meeting of the Society of Friends was held to discuss the obvious artistic talent of Benjamin West who was then sixteen years old. It was decided that his talent was a gift of God that should be encouraged.
At age seventeen, West was sent to live with relatives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he pursued his art training. Several of Philadelphia’s wealthy and influential individuals, including Dr. William Smith who was provost of the College of Philadelphia, were so impressed by West’s painting they raised a fund to send him to Europe to study art.
In 1760 Benjamin West, in his early twenties, departed for Italy with letters of introduction to some prominent men in Rome. It was an important step for the young artist. In Rome, he acquired the guidance of a gentleman named Mr. Robinson who presented him to Cardinal Albani. The cardinal conducted West through the Vatican to view works of art.
While in Italy, West studied under the German artist Anton Raphael Mengs at the Capitoline Academy. As part of his art training, West copied paintings by several old masters, including Raphael and Titian. His interest in painting grand themes from history increased during the three years of study in Rome. At the end of that period, West left Italy and traveled through France to England.
When Benjamin West first arrived in London in 1763, at age twenty-five, the classical paintings he had produced in Italy, based on historical and biblical themes, gained attention. Although West's first historical paintings were admired, they did not sell. At that time, in London, art collectors were not interested in purchasing paintings on historical themes produced by contemporary artists. However portraiture was popular, and commissions to paint portraits of individuals were more easily attained. Within two years, West was recognized as an artist of importance based on his popular portrait paintings.
West was well established in London when he sent for his bride-to-be, Elizabeth Shewell, to whom he had been engaged for three years. On June 24, 1764, she set sail, accompanied on the journey by Benjamin West's father and by an art student, Matthew Pratt. Pratt wrote about the Atlantic crossing, which took twenty-eight days, and the wedding that followed. Pratt also mentioned in his account that Benjamin West, having gained fame in London as an artist, lived in a very elegant home. His father, John West, following his return to England, made his home with his first son, Thomas West, who as an infant had been left with relatives in London.
In 1764, the Royal Academy of Art was founded in London with Benjamin West as a charter member. As such, he exhibited with the Society of Artists. When John Singleton Copley sent his painting, Boy with a Squirrel, from America to London for the 1766 exhibition, the two artists began a correspondence that would continue for years. Boy with a Squirrel, was well received. However there were some criticisms, which West relayed to Copley in a letter. West offered further constructive criticism when Copley sent another painting, Young Lady with a Bird and Dog, to London the following year for the 1767 exhibition. The composition featuring a little girl kneeling by a chair, near a dog and a parrot, was rather severely criticized in London for what were considered weaknesses in the painting. West informed Copley concerning the negative comments of the judging committee, while in the same letter complementing Copley on his drawing ability and use of brilliant color. West encouraged Copley to travel to Europe where he could visit museums to see great works of art. West also offered the hospitality of his home. It would be nearly a decade before Copley made the trip from America to Europe.
In London, West continued to obtain commissions to paint portraits, although he would have preferred producing what he considered more important paintings. He had that opportunity in 1766, when he was commissioned by the Archbishop of York to produce an historical painting. The Archbishop chose a theme based on the writings of the Roman historian, Tacitus, to be executed in a Neoclassical style with the figures draped in togas. West produced the painting, Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus, 1768, in which Agrippina crosses a short stone footbridge leading to a columned structure. With Agrippina are her two children, one on either side, holding onto the long, draped folds of her garment. When completed, the painting came to the attention of King George III, and brought Benjamin West both the ruler’s patronage and friendship. As a result,West was commissioned by King George to paint portraits of the royal family.
During that period, Classicism was considered the only acceptable painting style for the depiction of historical subjects. However, within two years of completing his highly successful painting of Agrippina, West, in his next major historical painting, took an innovative approach that was considered radical. Adopting the attitude that fidelity to fact was as necessary for the artist as for the literary historian, West challenged the convention of using a classical setting with figures dressed in Greek togas for the depiction of an historical event that had taken place twelve years earlier.
West created a sensation by introducing contemporary clothing in his painting The Death of Wolfe, 1770. The scene depicts a battle fought in Quebec by soldiers under the leadership of the English General, James Wolfe, and the French General, Louis Joseph de Montcalm, during the war to determine whether Canada would be under English or French rule. West portrayed the soldiers in the uniforms they wore into battle. The dying Wolfe, in his bright red uniform, lies in the center foreground supported by several of his men. A blue-coated figure kneeling at his left side tends his wounds. Other soldiers in red, one holding a half-furled flag, stand in a semi-circle around Wolfe. A half-clothed Indian, with tattooed arms and legs, sits on the ground off-center in the foreground. He gazes toward the dying officer. Two men, near the Indian, react to the situation. One points behind them toward the battle that still rages. According to legend, the soldiers told their dying commander the enemy was retreating, to which Wolfe responded that he would die content.
While he was still working on The Death of Wolfe, West was visited by the Archbishop of York and Joshua Reynolds, president of the Royal Academy. They came to protest against the bold innovation in West's painting style, claiming that only classical Greek and Roman costumes should be used in historical paintings. However, Reynolds later acknowledged that West was right in his use of current uniforms, in the painting of a recent event, rather than classical garb.
In Benjamin West’s Self Portrait, c.1771, the artist, then in his early thirties, wears a green suit and a large black hat. The painting reveals anexpression that is both gentle and attractive. West continued to produce portraits, although he is better known for his paintings based on historical themes.
West turned to an American historical theme when he painted Penn’s Treaty with the Indians, in 1771. It is an interesting scene, based on legend. The major figures in the gathering form a row across the canvas. William Penn stands off-center left with a group of men wearing the colonial style black hats, dark suits and knee-length coats. They face a group of Indians, some of whom are sitting on the ground while the others remain standing. A bolt of cloth is held out toward two seated Indians in the center of the canvas. In the left foreground, two traders lean against, or sit on, large boxes. In the opposite lower corner of the painting, a young Indian sits with an impressive native woman who holds a papoose strapped to a board. The young Indian points toward the trading taking place in the center of the canvas. Several groups of Indians fill the right side of the canvas. Buildings two and three stories high, some still under construction, are seen behind the people. Trees, edging a large body of water, fill the far background. The following year, in 1772, King George III appointed West historical painter to his court, at a stipend of 1,000 pounds a year.
Benjamin West’s father, John West, remained in England until his death, October 5, 1776, at age eighty-six. As a consequence, he would have witnessed his son’s rising success and appointment to the king’s court. It was under the king’s patronage that West painted The Battle of La Hogue, 1778, a depiction of the historic sea battle of 1692 between the English and the French.
In his rendition of The Battle of La Hogue, West again presented the participants in clothing of their period. In the scene, what remained of a largely defeated French fleet had retreated into the harbor of La Hogue where land artillery could aid in their defense. Rather than attempting to sail into the bay in pursuit, the English navy used small boats and invaded the harbor by night. They managed to board the French ships and by turning the ship's cannons toward land, destroyed the artillery on shore. In the painting, there are several large galleons. One is burning and listing to the port side. The foreground is filled with small wooden boats crowded with sailors engaged in fierce hand-to-hand battle. Survivors from a scuttled small boat are being pulled from the sea. Two men, who appear to be officers, wear fancy uniforms with plumed hats and hold long swords. The majority of the men in the battle scene wear simple sailor’s garb. Vice-Admiral George Rooke, who led the English forces in the attack, stands in a boat just to the left of the skirmish. He wears a red uniform and a white-plumed black hat. Although he holds a sword in his right hand and points with his left, he is not engaged physically in the conflict. His pose indicates that he was directing the attack. When the painting was exhibited, in 1780, it was greatly admired by the majority of the viewers.
However, there was some criticism of a political nature. West's support of the American and the French Revolutions was known and a group of individuals questioned West’s loyalty to the king for whom he was court painter. West, who was very tactful, managed to maintain a close and friendly relationship with King George III during the American Revolution. In their long-lasting association, West retained the position of court painter for more than thirty years.
Throughout his life, West was at the forefront of change in painting technique. By 1790, thirty years before his death, West began painting in a Romantic style. It was an art movement that involved the use of vivid color and dramatic themes. There was usually a strong contrast of light and dark values, as well as the depiction of movement with thrusting, contorted forms. The artist was concerned less with the perfect balance and controlled forms of Classicism and more with an emotionally charged depiction of action with an emphasis on the energy and mood of the moment. Romanticism dramatically portrays a scene with an expressive power and intensity that appeals to the emotions of the viewer.
West's paintings in a Romantic style were labeled his “dread manner” works. He developed the style while producing a series of paintings for King George III on the theme of revealed religion. Thirty-six large paintings based on miraculous happenings were planned for a royal chapel at Windsor Castle. Rather than appealing to the viewer's reason, they were intended to awe the viewer and arouse fear. The paintings in the “dread manner” series were produced over a period of a decade. In 1790, West completed Moses Showing the Brazen Serpent to the Infirm to be Healed, in which Moses is depicted greater than life-size as compared with the writhing figures at his feet. He points with a rod toward a large serpent twisting around the limbs of a tree. Snakes are entwined with figures in the foreground. Even in the sky, among the clouds, there appears a writhing mass of phantom snakes.
West was elected president of the Royal Academy when Joshua Reynolds died in 1792. With the patronage of King George III and studios in royal residences in both London and Windsor, West could have concentrated solely on his own artistic production. Instead, as an art instructor at the Royal Academy, West spent a great deal of time and energy teaching and advising aspiring young artists, many of whom were Americans who went to London to study art under his tutelage.
Among the dramatic paintings in the “dread manner” series, perhaps the best known is Death on a Pale Horse, 1802. It depicts writhing bodies and rearing horses. Another painting for the series on revealed religion, Angel of the Lord Announcing the Resurrection to the Marys at the Sepulchre, 1805, features a wild-eyed angel with billowing draperies and disarranged hair who towers over three women on the right and two men on the left side of the canvas. They appear to react with startled fear. All the paintings in the series are large; one measures sixteen by twenty-eight feet. West used veiled figures and violent, distorted action to create terror and awe. Only seven of the paintings were completed before the King's mind began to deteriorate and the series was abandoned.
Students who worked under West during that period would have been influenced by his Romantic style and painterly brushwork. His American student, Washington Allston, developed as a Romanticist and years later painted his own version of the “Pale Horse” theme.
Study under Benjamin West at the Royal Academy in London became an important, almost essential, part of the art training of any American artist who planned a career as a painter. West was an art instructor at the Academy for approximately fifty years. His influence as a teacher of art can hardly be overestimated. He represented the ultimate in artistic and personal achievement. As president of the Royal Academy, a position he held for twenty-eight years, West was a model of artist and teacher. He was greatly admired by, and an inspiration to, his students.
In West, Self-Portrait, 1806, the white-haired older artist is depicted in side view wearing a deep red jacket with the ruffled edge of his white shirt collar showing at the neck of his garment. West holds a paintbrush with his right hand and, with the left, grips his palette and a handful of brushes. The painting on which he is working, the portrait of a dark-haired matron, fills the upper left half of the composition. The middle-aged woman, wearing a white dress and a soft gray head covering, appears to gaze directly at the viewer with a gentle expression. She sits in front of a red drape which angles downward behind her head to near the top of her left shoulder. In the interesting composition West, with his head in three-quarter view, looks to the left as though studying the model sitting there.
American artists who went to London to study under Benjamin West at the Royal Academy returned to America having developed their artistic skills and an interest in teaching art. Charles Willson Peale, John Trumbull and Samuel F.B. Morse were among those who carried back to America West’s example of educating and inspiring young artists. They were instrumental in establishing American art academies to provide the professional art instruction that previously could only be attained by study in Europe.
In addition to his importance as an art teacher, West made a great contribution with his own artistic expression. He was an innovator in art throughout his life. When he arrived in London from Italy as an aspiring young artist, he helped introduce neoclassical art in England. He later created a sensation by discarding the toga, the accepted neoclassical costume for historical painting, and portraying a relatively recent historical scene in contemporary dress. Late in life, West was still at the forefront of change in artistic expression when he helped direct painting away from Classicism toward the Romantic Movement.
West painted a portrait of Benjamin Franklin, who was a friend. Franklin was also the godfather of West’s second son, whom they had named Benjamin. In the painting entitled Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky, ca. 1816, Franklin sits on a rock, right arm raised holding a rod connected to the string of a kite flying in the gray-clouded sky behind him. A white burst of lighting blazes in the sky above. Wind blows his white hair and the tail of the red cloak draped around the shoulders of his black suit. Childlike nude angels cavort in the background and point up to the blaze of light in the dark sky. The painting illustrates a demonstration West witnessed in Philadelphia in 1752, when he was in his early teens. The portrait was not painted by West from life, but rather was in memory of his friend.
In 1817, Benjamin West's wife, Elizabeth Shewell West died after more than fifty years of marriage. Following her death, his health failed rapidly. West died in London on March 11, 1820, at age eighty-two, and was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral. He had never returned to the United States. As a highly successful American artist in England, West was an extremely important figure in the art world of his time. Late in life, he was involved in founding the National Gallery in London. Of special significance, West inspired his students to help establish art schools in the United States and can be seen as the motivating force behind the formation of the first American art academies.