Erik Visits an American (Abroad) Grave, Part 1,972

This is the grave of Benjamin West.

Born in 1738 in Springfield, Pennsylvania, West grew up in modest circumstances. His father ran an inn and did pretty alright, but was hardly an elite. West would later tell stories about his childhood that included Native American kids teaching him how to make paint. Could be true, could well not be true. But we do know that he was getting painting lessons from the time he was a kid and he was certainly very good at it. By the early 1750s, people were paying him to paint their portrait. I’ve seen claims of this as early as 1746, but I do have trouble believing this of an 8-year old.

In 1756, one of West’s clients suggested that he try to move away from portraits a bit. He asked West to paint a work called Death of Socrates, the kind of history painting that 18th century people liked. The client hanged it in his house and William Smith came over one day. Smith was the provost of the College of Philadelphia and a generally important mid 18th century Pennsylvania elite. He was struck by the painting and so reached out to West and offered to become his patron. He paid for West to get a better education and also introduced him to other rich people. He became friends with Benjamin Franklin, who of course knew everyone. West was on his way to the top.

West’s patrons–and by this time there were a bunch of them–paid for him to take a tour of Italy in 1760 to study the best art in the world. On his way home, West stopped in London. He never left. He would never again return to the United States. He had a half-brother living in London, so he had some family. A woman from Philadelphia he knew agreed to marry him. He was able to create a life and a very successful career as one of the top painters of the late 18th century. As far as I can tell, West had no interest in the American Revolution at all. And honestly, let’s not overstate just how many Americans actually cared about the American Revolution. The best estimates I’ve seen is something like 40 percent of the European-Americans in what became the United States were for the Revolution. That doesn’t mean 60 percent were opposed to it; a lot of folks were really quite uninterested, particularly the sizable German populations entering the colonies. But don’t be surprised that West would be indifferent at best to it.

In any case, by the time of the Revolution, West was a major painter in England. He proposed to paint the walls of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, which was rejected and that would have been interesting compared to its look today. In any case, it did not take him long to get a lot of major commissions from the richest people in the UK. Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, Thomas Newton–these were types who were useful patrons for West. His history paintings of classical subjects were super popular with them. His patrons wanted to set West up with a real commission–the kind of money that would mean he wouldn’t have to waste his time on portraits. As part of this, he was introduced to King George III, who liked him. They started talking about founding a Royal Academy for art and that happened in 1768. West was then given a major commission for the King, whic became 1769’s The Departure of Regulus.

This relationship continued to West’s great success. He was named the official court painter by George III in 1772. By this time, West’s reputation had shot the roof anyway with his 1770 painting The Death of General Wolfe, dramatizing that general death at the Battle of Quebec a decade earlier. That painting is still super famous, among the most famous paintings of the late 18th century. Anyway, as court painter, you can see why West wouldn’t care about the American Revolution! He did a huge set of paintings on God revealing religion to the English kings and religious leadership for the chapel at Windsor Castle, as well as a huge canvas of scenes from the life of King Edward III for a different part of the castle.

Later, West would paint The Preservation of St Paul after a Shipwreck at Malta, an enormous painting at the Old Royal Naval College. For reasons that aren’t totally clear to me, by the late 18th century, West was no longer receiving the same level of royal patronage. I figure that is at least in part to George III’s illness that affected his mind; perhaps the people taking care of him and running things didn’t care for him or his art. But it didn’t matter that much for his personal success at this point. What it meant is that he focused more on religious paintings that he could sell for a lot of money. He had wanted to send a gift back to Philadelphia and painted Christ Healing the Sick for the Pennsylvania Hospital, but then he liked it too much so he sold it to the British Institution and then sent them a copy. A good metaphor for how West thought about the U.S.

West was incredibly ambitious, arrogant, and hostile to those who got in his way. This made him a lot of enemies. He was named president of the Royal Academy in 1792, even though a lot of people hated him. He would serve in that position for most of the time until his death, though there was at least one period when he was forced out. At one point, he was offered a knighthood. He rejected it, outraged at such a worthless offer. He thought he should be made a peer instead.

For all the indifference West showed to his home, he did mentor a lot of American artists when they arrived in London. A lot of these folks are forgotten today except by people who really care about turn of the 19th century American art, but among them are Gilbert Stuart, Charles Wilson Peale, Rembrandt Peale, John Trumbull, and Samuel Morse (who was an artist as well as the telegraph guy and anti-Irish fanatic). He also was a mentor and made connections for steamboat creator Robert Fulton in England.

West died in 1820. He was 81 years old.

Let’s look at some of West’s work.

Benjamin West is buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, England. And while seeing West is obviously not why I went to London, it is 100% the reason I went to St. Paul’s.

If you would like this series to visit American painters of the period that West mentored, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl is at the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home outside of Nashville, and Samuel Lovett Waldo is in Brooklyn. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.