This week in class I introduced the artist Benjamin West. Even though he was born in the colonies (the tenth child of an innkeeper), he mostly painted in England - he was president of London's Royal Academy for many years. A story is told that he first learned to paint when some Indians showed him how to mix clay from the riverbank with bear grease. He went on from these humble beginnings to an appointment as the official history painter at the court of King George.
In contrast to the people we have talked about who were 'polymaths' (educated and excelled in many fields like language, government, theology, philosophy, the arts, science, etc), West was an 'autodidact' which simply means that he was very poorly educated in anything other than painting.
As a history paiinter he not only painted compositions of stories from classical history, but compositions of contemporary events. Here are the paintings I showed in class:
William Penn's Treaty with the Indians, 1771
His Majesty George II Resuming Power, 1789
Treaty of Paris, 1783
An interesting note on this last painting - West intended for the British delegation to be included in the painting but they would not sit for it. This is why the paiting was incomplete! (Sorry I didn't know that before class.)
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