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
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
- On the forefront of Neoclassicism, West felt that art should convey ideal virtues and moralizing tales to educate and civilize the larger public. Drawing on Cla
Benjamin West life and biography
Benjamin West, the first of America's emigre 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.
Because of his quaint charm and the remoteness of his origins (in the eyes of the Italians
Go to biographyThe artist Benjamin West (), Anglo-American known for his large scale historical paintings. Great work Benjamin West, is mainly devoted to court life of king George III and US history.
The artist's works (paintings) – this chilly academic, and the apparent retreat from the strict canons. Historical compositions tend neoklassitsisticheskoy spirit, transmission of the environment and costumes of different desire for accuracy of the facts of history.
Names of famous paintings by Benjamin West:
• "Death on a white horse";
• "Hagar and Ishmael";
• "The Golden age" and others.
All of this – the titles of the works of the West, played an important role in the dissemination of didactic and epic genre fashionable in the late 18th century. The work of the master contributed to the development of historical painting in Britain and portraiture in America.
The names of the paintings and other information presented on the pages of Archive.Read more
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