| Benjamin West (1738-1820) | ||
| Carol Jackson | Benjamin West claimed throughout
his life to have been self-taught. According to the legend, he learned from the Native
Americans how to prepare two of the primary colors. From his mother he obtained the indigo
to complete his palette. The hairs for his brush came from the tail of his cat Grimalkin. He moved to Italy when he was 21. Three years later he moved to London where he lived the rest of his life. He eventually became the official history painter of King George III and the second president of the Royal Academy of Arts (1792) which he had helped establish with Sir Joshua Reynolds (1768). Critics made fun of his huge canvases ("ten-acre paintings'). His most famous works include Penn's Treaty With the Indians and The Death of General Wolfe. He was one of the greatest art teachers of his day (taught Copley, Morse, C.W. Peale, Rembrandt Peale, Gilbert Stuart and John Trumbull).
|
West went east to
teach art.