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Benjamin West

Benjamin West (), the first of America's emigré artists, became one of Europe's most important neoclassic painters.

Benjamin West was born on Oct. 10, , in Springfield Township, Pa., to a struggling innkeeper who had emigrated from England. Though the Wests lived among Quakers, who habitually frowned upon art, Benjamin seems to have been encouraged by all about him from the time he began to draw at the age of six years. He gained a reputation in eastern Pennsylvania as a child prodigy. At first he was self-taught, but later, before his departure for Italy in , he knew the paintings of William Williams and Gustavus Hessalius, whose work he soon surpassed.

Among West's American works produced during the s were the Death of Socrates, forecasting his later neoclassic work; a somewhat fantastic Landscape with Cow (), revealing his early dreams of storybook castles; and a lustrous portrait of the young Thomas Mifflin. While in Pennsylvania, West aspired to be the companion of emperors and kings. He sought, then, the social opportunities which Europe offered.

Absorbing Neoclassicism

Because of his quaint charm and the remoteness of his origins (in the eyes o

Benjamin West

Born	Oct. 10, Springfield, Pennsylvania
Died	Mar. 11, (at age 81) London
Nationality	American
Field	Historical painting
Works	View Complete Works

Known as the father of American painting and the Raphael of America, Benjamin West () created an iconic style in his paintings of historical, landscape, and religious subjects. West was the first American artist who was able to gain international fame from his classical, high style, large-scale, historic paintings in oil on canvas. Although his subjects and style were somewhat controversial to some people of his time, West&#;s art and respect for antiquity became admired, studied, and imitated in later times.

Beginnings

Born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, Benjamin West was the tenth child of a Quaker innkeeper and tavern proprietor. Having a talent for the art of sketching, West was a self-taught artist with very little formal education. He learned by doing and listening to other artists. The Native Americans first showed West how to paint by mixing clay from the river bank with bear grease. West began his career in Pennsylvania painting portraits from to

William Henry, an American gun

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 first modern artists.

Accomplishments