Benjamin West

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Benjamin West, self-portrait

Benjamin West , PRA FRSA (born October 10, 1738 in Springfield , Province of Pennsylvania , † March 11, 1820 in London ) was one of the first internationally important American painters.

life and work

In his home country he received his first training and earned his living with portrait paintings .

With financial support from William Smith and William Allen, who was Philadelphia's richest man , West traveled to Italy in 1760 and lived mainly in Rome. He copied the paintings of the great masters Titian and Raffael . Here he met Raphael Mengs , Johann Joachim Winckelmann and Gavin Hamilton .

In 1763 he moved to London. In 1768 he helped found the Royal Academy of Arts . In 1792 the first president of the academy, Joshua Reynolds, died . Benjamin West succeeded him and remained President of the Royal Academy of Arts until his death (1820) .

West created classicist history pictures that are among the earliest of their kind in English art history. His painting " The Death of General James Wolfe in Québec " (1770), exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1771, made him internationally famous. According to one anecdote, West is said to have asked the President of the Academy Sir Joshua Reynolds for advice. Reynolds advised portrayals in ancient clothes and in ancient poses, which West refused: "The event that I want to capture with my picture took place on September 13, 1759, in a part of the world unknown to the Greeks and Romans was, and at a time when there was neither one of these nations nor heroes in ancient robes on this earth ... I wish to accurately reflect the date, the place and the parties involved in this event ". Despite the representation from a strictly contemporary point of view, the composition of the picture remained stuck conventionally in the Christian tradition of depicting the Pieta or the Descent from the Cross. The exotic reference was made by a representation of an Indian. Perhaps that is precisely why the success was overwhelming. The stream of visitors to the Royal Academie did not stop. An engraving based on the painting was sold in large numbers in a very short time.

King George III commissioned West to portray the members of the royal family. So he painted z. B. Princes Edward and William and the older children of William Duke of Gloucester , brother of King George III, Prince William , with his older sister, Princess Sophia of Gloucester . The king also had West paint himself twice.

In 1772 King George West appointed history painter to the court with an annual salary of £ 1000. In 1791 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . From 1791 until his death he was the overseer of the royal paintings.

West is known for his large-scale historical paintings, with expressive figures, colors and a composition scheme that helps the viewer to identify the depicted scene. West called this "epic representation".

Benjamin Best created the painting "Christ with a Child in Heaven" for Johann Caspar Lavater . Contact with Lavater came through the Swiss preacher Johann Heinrich Sulger, who lived in London. Despite an enthusiastic reception, West only delivered a few smaller works or engravings to Lavater.

There are several altarpieces by him in the Windsor Court Chapel . For the window paintings he made the cardboard boxes that Forest made from 1792 to 1796. For the audience room of the palace he created on behalf of King George III. six large paintings, the subjects of which are related to the story of King Edward III. are now combined with many other pictures of West in one room at Hampton Court . An altarpiece in the Hospital Church at Greenwich from west depicts St. Paul on Melite throwing the Viper away.

Many American artists studied with him in London, including Charles Willson Peale , Rembrandt Peale , Gilbert Stuart , John Trumbull , Thomas Sully and Samuel Morse .

In 1803 West was accepted as a foreign member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts .

Benjamin West died in his home on Newman Street, London, on March 11, 1820. He was buried in St Paul's Cathedral (painter's corner).

Major works

The death of General Wolfe National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
  • Non Dolet: The Story of Paetus and Arria , 1766 ( New Haven , Connecticut , Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection)
  • The Death of General Wolfe near Quebec , 1771, oil on canvas, 152.6 × 214.5 cm, ( Ottawa , National Gallery of Canada)
  • Death on a pale horse , around 1783 or 1802 ( Philadelphia , Museum of Art)

Other works

  • Joseph Banks (Lincoln, Usher Art Gallery)
  • The Burghers of Calais (Windsor, Royal Collection)
  • Edward III Crosses the Somme (Windsor, Royal Collection )
  • Penn's Treaty with the Indians (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts)
  • Colonel Guy Johnson (1775–76, canvas, 203 × 138 cm. Washington (DC), National Gallery of Art, Mellon Collection)
  • Self portrait
  • Adrian Hope of Sydenham and his family , 1802, canvas, 178 × 356 cm. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts.
  • Agrippina lands in Brundisium , 1766, canvas, 164 × 240 cm. New Haven (Connecticut), Yale University Art Gallery.
  • American negotiators confer on the peace treaty with England , 1783, canvas, 72 × 92 cm (unfinished). Winterthur (Delaware), Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.
  • Angelika and Medor , 1763–64, canvas, 91 × 81 cm. Andover (Massachusetts), WL Eccles Coll.
  • Christ is denied by the Jews , 1814, canvas, 508 × 660 cm. Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
  • The young Thomas Mifflin , around 1758, canvas, 122 × 91 cm. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Historical Society.
    At the edge of the forest
  • Depiction from the Apocalypse
  • Moses, the law tables holding ,
  • The death of Admiral Nelson ,
  • Christ Healing the Lame (London, National Gallery)
  • The Last Supper , (London, National Gallery)
  • Stoning of Saint Stephen , (London, Church of the Saint)
  • The battle of La Hougue
  • The battle of the Boyne
  • Alexander the Great with his doctor (Stafford Gallery)
  • Agrippina with the ashes of Germanicus (Burleigh House)
  • Oliver Cromwell dissolving the Long Parliament , 1782 ( Montclair Art Museum); Reproduction engravings by John Hall (1789) and Nicolas de Launay (before 1792)
  • Orestes and Pylades, who are brought as sacrifices before Iphigenia (TATE, London)
  • Christ before Pilate
  • Paintings by Benjamin West at TATE, London

literature

Essays
  • James T. Flexner: Benjamin West's American Neoclassicism . In: New York Historical Society Quarterly , 1952, pp. 5 ff., ISSN  0028-7253 .
  • Edgar Wind : Penny, West and the death of General Wolfe . In: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes , Vol. 10 (1947), pp. 159 ff. ISSN  0083-7180 .
Books

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Smith (1727-1803)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.archives.upenn.edu  
  2. ↑ William Allen (1704-1780)
  3. ^ Royal Academy of Arts: Database Entry - Benjamin West , accessed April 10, 2013.
  4. ↑ The Death of General Wolfe, painted 1770 by Benjamin West
  5. ^ Prince Edward and William IV of the United Kingdom. (1778)
  6. ↑ Portrait of Prince William and His Elder Sister, Princess Sophia
  7. ↑ George III painted in 1779 by Benjamin West
  8. ^ 1811 teaches Samuel Morse
  9. ^ "Pylades and Orestes Brought as Victims before Iphigenia" in the Tate Gallery

Web links

Commons : Benjamin West  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME West, Benjamin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English painter
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1738
PLACE OF BIRTH Springfield , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 1820
Place of death London