In the trance of melodious employ; Thro' Mortality's storm: I submit, I resign, to oppression and strife; For I know, when my breath I shall rise to Content in Eternity's life. BIOGRAPHY OF EMINENT PERSONS. BENJAMIN WEST, Esq. PRESIDENT of the ROYAL ACADEMY. F this contemporary of Reynolds, and one of the fathers of the British School of Painting, so much has been published in his life, that little of novelty can be added on his death. He was an American by birth, and the youngest son of John West and Sarah Pearson, of Springfield, in Chester county, in the State of Pennsylvania, where he was born on the 10th of October, 1738. This family has been traced in an unbroken series to the Lord Delawarre, who distinguished himself in the wars of Edward the Third, and particularly at the battle of Cressy. In the reign of Richard the Second, they settled at Long Crandon, in Buckinghamshire. About the year 1667, they embraced the tenets of the Quakers; and Colonel James West, the friend of Hampden, is said to have been the first proselyte of the family. In 1699, they emigrated to America. Pearson, the maternal grandfather of the artist, was the confidential friend of Wm. Penn, and the same person to whom that venerable legislator said, on landing in America, Providence has brought us safely hither; thou hast been the companion of my perils, what wilt thou that I should call this place?" to which Pearson replied, "that since he had honoured him so far as to desire him to give that part of the country a name, he would, in remembrance of his native city, call it Chester." Mr. Pearson built a house and formed a plantation in the neighbourhood, which he called Springfield, in consequence of discovering a large spring of water in the first field cleared for cultivation; and it was near this place that Benjamin West, our illustrious painter, was born. When the West family emigrated in 1699, John, the father of Benjamin, was left to complete his education at the Quaker's school at Uxbridge, and did not join his family in America till 1714. The first display of talent in the infant mind of West was curious, and still more so from its occurring where there was nothing to excite it. America had scarcely a specimen of the arts, and in a Quaker's house, his child had never seen a picture or a print; his pencil was of his own invention; his colours were given to him by an Indian savage; his whole progress was a series of invention; and painting to him was not the result of a lesson, but an instinctive passion. In 1745, one of his sisters, who had been married, and had a daughter, came with her infant to spend a few days at her father's. When the child was asleep in the cradle, Mrs. West invited her daughter to gather flowers in the garden, and committed the infant to the care of Benjamin during their absence, giving him a fan to flap away the flies from molesting his little charge. After some time the child happened to smile in its sleep, and its beauty attracted his attention. He looked at it with a pleasure which he had never before experienced, and observing some paper on a table, together with pens and red and black ink, he seized them with agitation, and endeavoured to delineate a portrait; although at this period he had never seen an engraving or a picture, and was only in the seventh year of his age. Hearing the approach of his mother and sister, he endeavoured to conceal what he had been doing;' but the old lady observing his confusion, inquired what he was about, and requested him to shew her the paper. He obeyed, entreating her not to be angry. Mrs. West, after looking some time at the drawing with evident pleasure, said to her daughter, "I declare he has made a likeness of little Sally," and kissed him with much fondness and satisfaction. This encouraged him to say, that if it would give her any pleasure, he would make pictures of the flowers which she held in her hand; for his genius was awakened, and he felt that he could imitate the forms of any of those things which pleased his sight. Soon after he was sent to school in the neighbourhood, and during his leisure hours was permitted to draw with pen and ink. In the course of the summer a party of Indians came to Springfield, and being amused with the sketches of birds and flowers which Benjamin shewed them, they taught him to pre pare pare the red and yellow colours with which they painted their ornaments. To these his mother added blue, by giving him a piece of indigo. His drawings at length attracted the attention of the neighbours; and some of them happening to regret that the Artist had no pencils, he inquired what kind of things these were, and they were described to him as small brushes made of camel's hair fastened in a quill. As there were, however, no camels in America, he could not think of any substitute, till he happened to cast his eyes on a black cat, when, in the tapering fur of her tail, he discovered the means of supplying what he wanted. In the following year, a Mr. Pennington, a merchant of Philadelphia, came to visit Mr. West. He noticed the drawings of birds and flowers round the room, unusual ornaments in the house of a Quaker; and heard with surprise that they were the work of his little cousin. Of their merit, as pictures, he did not pretend to be a judge, but he thought them wonderful productions for a boy entering on his eighth year; and being told with what imperfect materials they had been executed, he promised to send a box of colours and pencils. On his return home he fulfilled his engagement, and at the bottom of the box placed several pieces of canvass prepared for the easel, and six engravings. The box was received with delight; and in the colours, the oils, and the pencils, young West found all his wants supplied. He rose at the dawn of the following day, and carried the box to a room in the garret, where he spread his canvas, prepared a pallet, and began to imitate the figures in the engravings. Enchanted by his art, he forgot the school hours, and joined the family at dinner without mentioning the employment in which he had been engaged. In the afternoon he again retired to his study in the garret; and for several days successively he thus withdrew and devoted himself to painting. Mrs. West, suspecting that the box occasioned his neglect of school, went to the garret and found him employed on the picture. Her anger was appeased by the sight of his performance. She saw, not a mere copy, but a composition from two of the engravings. She kissed him with transports of affection, and assured him that she would intercede with his father to pardon him for having absented himself from school. Sixty-seven years. afterwards Mr. Galt, the recorder of these anecdotes, had the gratification to see this piece in the same room with the sublime painting of "Christ Rejected;" on which occasion the painter declared to him that there were inventive touches in his first and juvenile essay, which all his subsequent experience had not enabled him to surpass. When the young painter attained the age of sixteen, a profession was necessary to be chosen for him; and, with a due conformity to the primitive habits of the Quakers, it was chosen in solemn assembly, after harangues by some of the brother or sisterhood, who decided on his adopting the profession for which he appeared to have been born. The men laid their hands on his head, the women kissed him, and this hope of Pensylvania set out on his travels. In the town of Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, and the cities of Philadelphia and New York, he painted many portraits, and several historical pictures, with considerable success, till he attained the age of twenty-one, when the produce of his industry, and the predominant desire of acquiring excellence in historical painting, carried him to Italy, the great depository of the ancient and modern arts, and the most favourable school for genius. T In the year 1760 Mr. West left the city of Philadelphia and embarked for Leghorn, where he procured recommendations to Cardinal Albani, and other persons of distinction at Rome. Through these recommendations he was introduced to Raphael Mengs, Pompeo Battoni, and most of the celebrated artists in Rome; and was yet more fortunate in the intimacy he formed with Mr. Wilcox, the author of Roman Conversations. The kindness of this gentleman, and that of the late Lord Grantham, then Mr. Robinson, procured him an introduction to all that was excellent in the arts, both of the ancient and modern school. But the sudden change from the cities of America, where he saw no productions but a few English portraits, and those which had sprung from his own pencil, to the city of Rome, the seat of arts and taste, made so forcible an impression upon his feelings as materially to affect his health. The enthusiasm of his mind was heated with what he beheld, and oppressed at once by novelty and grandeur, the springs of health were weakened, and he was under the necessity of withdrawing from Rome in a few weeks, by the advice of his his physician, or the consequence might have been fatal to his life. Mr. West returned to Leghorn, and received the most flattering attention from the English consul and his lady. His mind was thus relaxed by friendly intimacy and society, which, together with sea-bathing, restored him to health and to the prosecution of his studies in Rome. He here fixed his mind upon the most glorious productions of ancient and modern art; and the works of Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Poussin engaged most of his attention; but he was again compelled to withdraw from his studies, owing to the loss of health, and to return to his friends at Leghorn. The air and society of this place again restored him, and by the advice of those in whom he most confided, he proceeded to Florence instead of Rome. He here recommenced his studies with increased ardour in the galleries and the palace Pitti, and was a third time arrested in his progress, and relapsed into an illness which confined him more than six months to his bed and room, during which time he was under the necessity of submitting to a surgical operation in one of his ancles, where the fever had settled. In this delicate operation Mr. West was greatly indebted to the skill and attention of the celebrated surgeon Nanona, to whom we have often heard him confess that he owed the preservation of his leg, if not his life. During the long confinement occasioned by this painful malady, our young artist received marked attentions from Sir Horace Mann, the English minister at Florence, the Marquis of Gereni and Ricchardi, the late Lord Cooper, and many of the British nobility. The love of his art and the emulation of excellence triumphed over every pain of body and oppression of mind; and in the severest paroxysms of sickness Mr. West never desisted from drawing, reading, and composing historical subjects. He had a frame constructed in order to enable him to paint when obliged to keep his bed, and in that situation he amused himself by painting several ideal pictures and portraits. When he was sufficiently recovered to bear removal, and to be carried out to enjoy the fine air of the Bobeli gardens, his youth and an excellent constitution united, so that nature soon made a complete restoration of his health; and in order to confirm and establish what was so happily be gun, he was recommended by his friends to travel. A gentleman from Leghorn, an Englishman of considerable talents and classical education, accompanied' him to Bologna, Parma, Mantua, Verona, and Venice, in which cities he made himself acquainted with the paintings of the Caracci, Corregio, Julio Romano, Titian, and the other celebrated masters of the Venetian and Lombard schools, the chief productions of whose pencils are to be found in the abovementioned cities. From Parma he extended his tour to Genoa and Turin, inflamed with a curiosity to examine the esteemed pictures of the Italian and Flemish masters, which those places are distinguished for possessing. Having now taken an extensive survey of the treasures of modern Italy, and completed himself in those schools, as far as observation concurring with genius and industry has a tendency to complete the artist, Mr. West was desirous of a yet wider survey, and grew unwilling to quit the continent till he should have exhausted whatever was left worthy of inspection. The French ground was still untrodden; he therefore proceeded through Lyons to Paris, in which he remained till he had made himself acquainted with the best productions of the art which France could at that time boast. He passed most of his time in the superb palaces of that city and its environs, in which the paintings of most repute were congregated, and in August 1763 he arrived in London. We have thus traced Mr. West in his continental progress, and have omitted nothing of importance during his stay in Italy. It was now his turn to take a survey of the state of the arts and the modern collections in his native country; for which purpose, in the autumn of the same year in which he arrived in England, he visited Oxford, Blenheim, Bath, Stourhead, Fonthill, Wilton, Langford,near Salisbury, Windsor, and Hampton-court. This tour, performed, like those in Italy and France, for the purpose of completing his knowledge of the paintings of the eminent masters, introduced him to all the works of art in the above-mentioned places, particularly the picture by Vandyke of the Pembroke family at Wilton, and the Cartoons by Raphael at Hampton-court. Having completed this excursion, it was the intention of Mr. West to return to America, and take up his residence in the city of Philadelphia; thither to import the knowledge which he had col lected lected in the various schools he had visited, and to practise his profession with as much honour and emolument as the slender patronage of America could afford. But in April 1764, the exhibition of painting, sculpture, and architecture opened for the inspection of the public, at the great room in Spring-gardens; and by the express wish of Mr. Reynolds, afterwards Sir Joshua, and Mr. Richard Wilson, our young artist was induced to send thither two pictures painted at Rome, and a whole-length portrait of General Monckton, which he had Fainted during the winter in London, for that distinguished officer. The favourable reception of those pictures by the artists and the public, together with the earnest entreaties of his friends, induced Mr. West to remain in England. In the course of that year the amiable lady with whom, previously to his departure from Philadelphia, he had contracted an affection, left that city in company with his father, and joined our young artist in London: they were immediately married, and settled in the metropolis. The artists who united in 1760 to form an exhibition of their works at the great room in Spring-gardens, became incorporated in the year 1765. Mr. West was immediately chosen member, and appointed one of the directors. He drew at their academy in St. Martin'slane, and became one of their constant exhibitors, till the opening of the exhibition of the Royal Academy, which was established under the patronage of his late Majesty, in the year 1768. Mr. West was graciously named by his Majesty as one of the four artists to wait upon him and submit to his inspection the plan of the institution. This plan happily received the royal approbation, and the King commanded the deputation to take every step in their power to accelerate the establishment. The names of these gentlemen, besides Mr. West, were, Mr. Chambers, afterwards Sir William Chambers, Mr. Moser, afterwards first keeper of the Royal Academy, and Mr. Coates. In the year previous to this event Mr. West had been honourably mentioned to his Majesty by Drummond, the then Archbishop of York, on his finishing for that worthy prelate the picture of Agrippina landing at Brundusium with the ashes of Germanicus. In order, therefore, most effectually to serve Mr. West, the archbishop introduced him, together with that picture, to the King; a circumstance which gave his Majesty his first knowledge of Mr. West, and so favourable an opinion of his talents, as to determine his royal master to employ him. His Majesty was pleased to commission him at that time for the picture of Regulus, which was the first painting exhibited by Mr. West on the opening of the Royal Academy in 1769. And here we cannot avoid remarking, what our readers will perhaps consider as worthy of our observation, as we ourselves think it, of astonishment and national gratitude, that, from the exhibition in Spring-gardens in 1764 to the exhibition of last year 1804, Mr. West has not omitted a single year in the exposition of his works for the public entertainment and instruction. We flatter outselves, moreover, that it will be highly serviceable to our readers, and particularly to artists, and all such as take an interest in the arts, to present them with a correct and authentic catalogue of the pictures, and their subjects, which Mr. West has painted during that period; when it will be found to constitute a whole which, as proceeding from the pencil of an individual, has no parallel in the annals of painting, if we consider the number, size, and extent of their composition in figures, and their great diversity of matter. Mr. West, in his tour through France and Italy, had frequent reason to lament the degraded state to which he found the arts reduced, as well as the degenerate patronage in those countries, in comparison with that which had formerly raised them to their greatest dignity in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In England, the manly exertions of Reynolds and Wilson, and the original genius of Hogarth, with several others, had conferred upon the arts a portion of that lustre, chastity, and dignity which did themselves and their country honour. To delineate historical events in painting with perspicuity and dignity, is one of the most impressive powers which is given to man. Historical painting has been justly called the epic of the art, as it demands the greatest sublimity of genius, and the strictest accuracy of judgment, the most extensive knowledge of nature and her works, as well as of the best human productions in poetry and science; and above all, it requires that rare quality which has been denominated so well by a modern writer," the philosophy of taste." In that philosophical and and moral point of view, Mr. West has ever considered the department of the art which he had embraced as a profession, and in this sense he ever understood and wished to employ it. The patronage of George the Third happily concurred with this his primary desire, the encouragement of Drummond, the then archbishop of York, the honourable Thomas Penn, and the energies of his own mind. He was thus enabled to give to the world the pictures of Agrippina, Regulus, Hannibal, Wolfe, and Penn. In these pictures are exhibited feminine and conjugal affection to departed greatness, invincible love of country, heroism, and a rectitude of justice. The fine prints from these pictures engraved under the inspection of Mr. West, by Erlom, Green, Woollett, and Hall, were spread by a commercial intercourse throughout the civilized world; and the subjects being real facts founded in history, exhibited to man's view what dignified and ennobled his nature, so that the more discerning part of the public in England, France, Italy, Germany, and America, became awake to their real powers. ways This victory of the painter will albe recorded in the arts; it was, in truth, a conquest over those many difficulties which had so long fettered painting. But from the era of these pictures of Wolfe and Penn, we must fix a revolution in the dressing of figures in historical pictures, not only in England, but in Italy, France, and other countries, where the art of painting is cultivated. It was for this that Mr. West was so honourably distinguished by the first men in arts and science, as well as by the lovers of arts in Paris, when he went abroad with his youngest son to visit the Napoleon Museum in the autumn of 1802. He was received among them as a man who had conferred an constantly assigns them a place where good artists are united. "The administration invites you, therefore, to come and fill that place which belongs to you at their banquet. It reflects its bosom, it will be the interpreter of the with complacency that, in possessing you in esteem which it has for your talents, and that it will honour in your person celebrated men who in arts and sciences constitute the ornament of your country. "Receive by anticipation, Sir, the assurance of our profound veneration, and of our sincere esteem. (Signed) "FOUBERT, administrator. "LAVALLE, Secretary of the Museum." (A translation.) At the conclusion of the public banquet the secretary of the museum addressed an elegant poem to Mr. West, which he had composed for that occasion; in which he enumerated most of his pictures which had been engraved, and, in speaking of them in terms of the highest commendation, he principally dwelt on their efficacy in reforming the prostitution which the art had undergone in the preceding ages. It will not be improper to enumerate the attention bestowed upon Mr. West, not only in England, but in other countries since he visited Europe. In this country, the first honour paid him was in his being chosen a member of the incorporated society of artists in the year 1765. In 1772 his Majesty was pleased to honour him with the title of his historical painter; and in 1790 was pleased to give him the appointment of surveyor of the royal pictures. and In 1791 he was unanimously elected president of the Royal Academy; in the same year was chosen a member of the society of Dilettanti. Attentions shewn to Mr. West's professional character out of England: When he made the tour of Italy, the academy of Rome made him free to study in it, by the interest of Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Crispin, and through the friendship of Philippi Vallâ, a celebrated sculptor, and the Abbate Grant. At Florence, by the interest of Sir Horace Mann, and the Marquis Gereni, he was made free of that academy. Algerotti and others procured him the At Bologna, the friendship of Count same distinction in that academy. At Parma, the director Signor Balreggi honourably mentioned him to the prince, on his admission to the same privilege in that academy. At |