Benjamin West

Benjamin West (1738–1820) was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, the tenth child of an innkeeper, and was largely self-taught, with some training from the artisan painter William Williams. He painted portraits in Pennsylvania until Philadelphia patrons sent him to Italy in 1760, where he copied Titian and Raphael and met Mengs, Gavin Hamilton and Angelica Kauffman. He arrived in England in 1763 intending a short visit, and never returned to America. In London he won the favour of George III, helped launch the Royal Academy and later succeeded Reynolds as its president. The king made him historical painter to the court in 1772, and he was Surveyor of the King's Pictures from 1791 until his death. The Death of General Wolfe (1770), his most famous painting, became one of the most reproduced images of its day. He also painted religious subjects on a large scale, proposing a cycle on the progress of revealed religion for a chapel at Windsor Castle, and later painting Christ Healing the Sick, which was presented to the National Gallery. John Trumbull was among his pupils. Here: The Cave of Despair.