32 Facts About Benjamin West

Benjamin West, 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.

Benjamin West impressed King George III and was largely responsible for the launch of the Royal Academy, of which he became the second president.

Benjamin West was appointed historical painter to the court and Surveyor of the King's Pictures.

Benjamin West 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 National Gallery.

Benjamin West was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, in a house that is in the borough of Swarthmore on the campus of Swarthmore College.

Benjamin West was the tenth child of an innkeeper and his wife.

West told the novelist John Galt, with whom, late in his life, he collaborated on a memoir, The Life and Studies of Benjamin West, 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".

Benjamin West discovered some bottles of ink and began to paint Sally's portrait.

From 1746 to 1759, Benjamin West worked in Pennsylvania, mostly painting portraits.

Benjamin West's resulting composition, which significantly differs from the source, has been called "the most ambitious and interesting painting produced in colonial America".

Dr William Smith, then the provost of the College of Philadelphia, saw the painting in Henry's house and decided to become Benjamin West's patron, offering him education and, more importantly, connections with wealthy and politically connected Pennsylvanians.

Benjamin West learned Wollaston's techniques for painting the shimmer of silk and satin, and 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".

Benjamin West expanded his repertoire by copying works of Italian painters such as Titian and Raphael direct from the originals.

Benjamin West stayed for a month at Bath with William Allen, who was in the country, and visited his half-brother Thomas West at Reading at the urging of his father.

Benjamin West moved into a house in Bedford Street, Covent Garden.

In 1766 Benjamin West proposed a scheme to decorate St Paul's Cathedral with paintings.

Benjamin West's Raphaelesque painting of Archangel Michael Binding the Devil is in the collection of Trinity College, Cambridge.

Benjamin West was 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.

Benjamin West painted a series of eight large canvases showing episodes from the life of Edward III for St George's Hall at Windsor Castle, 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.

Benjamin West painted nine portraits of members of the royal family, including two of the king himself.

Benjamin West was Surveyor of the King's Pictures from 1791 until his death.

Benjamin West painted his most famous, and possibly most influential painting, The Death of General Wolfe, in 1770 and it exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1771.

Benjamin 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.

Benjamin West was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1791.

Benjamin West is well known for his huge work in the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul which now forms part of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London.

Benjamin West provided the designs for the other paintings executed by Biagio Rebecca in the chapel.

Benjamin West resigned in 1805, to be replaced by a fierce rival, architect James Wyatt.

However Benjamin West was again elected president the following year, and served until his death.

Benjamin West died at his house in Newman Street in London, on March 11,1820, and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.

Benjamin West had been offered a knighthood by the British Crown, but declined it, believing that he should instead be made a peer.