Person:Benjamin West (7)

Notes

• American Painter - known for his paintings of historical scenes set in & around the time of the American Revolution. His most famous painting "The Death of General Wolfe" is more than 5 ft tall & 7 ft long. Comm by King George III to paint royal portraits.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} McCabe, James D. (James Dabney). Great fortunes. (New York, New York: [s.n.], 1870).
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 MATRICULATES. 1757. NON-GRADUATES, in University of Pennsylvania, Biographical Catalogue of the Matriculates of the College: Together with Lists of the Members of the College Faculty and the Trustees, Officers and Recipients of Honorary Degrees, 1749-1893. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1894)
   3.

   + BENJAMIN WEST.
   b. near Springfield, Chester (now Del.) Co., Penna., Oct. 10, 1738  ;
   d. London, Eng., March 11, 1820.
   s. John West and Sarah Pearson.
   Entered, 1753 or 4.
   Artist.
   Painted portraits in Phila. and N.Y. before sailing to Italy in 1760, when he was accompanied by a son (Class, 1759), of Chief Justice William Allen, in whose vessel they sailed to Leghorn, and thence went
   to Rome.
   Remained in Italy until 1763, and thence went to Eng.
   F. R. A. and one of its founders, 1765.
   Pres. of the same, with one slight interruption, 1782-1815.
   Mem. Ajn. Phil. Soc, 1768.
   He declined Knighthood.
   His works number upward of 400 pictures in oil, being particularly devoted to hist, subjects,
   m. Elizabeth, dau. Robert Shewell, Phila.
   See Cunningham's Lives, Painters and Sculptors. Dunlap's History. C. Edward Lester's Artists, Am. Tuckcrman's Book Artists. Simpson, Appleton. Life by J. Gait.