Benjamin west biography

Summary of Benjamin West

The British colonists did not bring a strong art tradition with them to the shores of North America, but this did not stop Benjamin West, the first internationally recognized artist to hale from the New World. Self-taught in his early years, West became a prominent portrait painter in Philadelphia and New York before travelling to Europe to immerse himself in the Italian Old Masters and Greek and Roman art. There he took up the newly forming Neoclassical style and painted several large-scale history paintings that were wildly popular with the public.

Wrapped in a mythology of self-promotion, West was hugely influential for a new generation of American artists, including Gilbert Stuart and John Singleton Copley, that shaped the early Republic's visual identity. While his reputation languished with later critics and historians, West's eventual transition to Romanticism and embrace of current trends has prompted some scholars to consider West one of the fir

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Benjamin West -

Penn People

Benjamin West, son of Sarah Pearson and John West, was born in near Springfield in Chester (now Delaware) County, Pennsylvania.

West&#;s name does not appear in the tuition konto books of the Academy and College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania). However, it fryst vatten certain that West studied under rektor Smith either in formal classes or privately. According to John Galt, who obtained his information directly from West for a biography published in , Smith was introduced to West while visiting a German school in Lancaster. He was so impressed by the boy&#;s artistic ability that he offered to teach him history and classical literature.

Smith tailored a curriculum specifically suited to the emerging artist. Instead of emphasizing grammar, Smith directed West&#;s attention to passages of ancient history which would most impress the artist and encourage his imagination. Smith also acquainted young West with Jacob Duché and Francis Hop

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Benjamin West

18th- and 19th-century English painter

For other people named Benjamin West, see Benjamin West (disambiguation).

Benjamin WestPRA (October 10, – March 11, ) was a British-American artist who painted famous historical scenes such as The Death of Nelson, The Death of General Wolfe, the Treaty of Paris, and Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky.

Entirely self-taught, West soon gained valuable patronage and toured Europe, eventually settling in London. He impressed King George III and was largely responsible for the launch of the Royal Academy, of which he became the second president (after Sir Joshua Reynolds). He was appointed historical painter to the court and Surveyor of the King's Pictures.

West also painted religious subjects, as in his huge work The Preservation of St Paul after a Shipwreck at Malta, at the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, and Christ Healing the Sick, presented to the Na