Benjamin West

American, 1738 - 1820

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18th- and 19th-century English painter

Explore Selected Works

Michelangelo, Two Nudes Fighting, c. 1505, pen and brown ink on laid paper; laid down, Gift of William B. O'Neal, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.150.3

Two Nudes Fighting

Michelangelo · c. 1505 · pen and brown ink on laid paper; laid down ·  Accession ID  1991.150.3

Giulio Romano, The Sacrifice of a Goat to Jupiter, c. 1527/1528, pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1973.47.1

The Sacrifice of a Goat to Jupiter

Giulio Romano · c. 1527/1528 · pen and brown ink with brown wash over black chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1973.47.1

Drawn with red and black chalk on cream-colored paper, a satyr has a man’s muscular upper body and the legs of a goat as he lies sprawled on his back across the width of this horizontal sheet. He lies with his head to our right and hooves to our left. His right arm, farther from us, is flung over his head and with that hand, he touches the sheep’s skin on which he reclines. The sheep’s head rests near the satyr’s shoulder. The satyr’s eyes are blank under lowered, deeply furrowed brows. His nose is bumped over the bridge and pointed at the end. His full lips are open to reveal his tongue and lower teeth over a cleft chin. A mustache or goatee is loosely drawn, and hollows in his cheeks suggest high cheekbones. A wine skin, like an oversized hot water bottle, is tucked under the hollow of his lower back. His left arm, closer to us, lies along the side of his body, and he holds a pan flute in that brawny hand. He has the furry haunches of a goat, and his legs are splayed so his hooves reach into the upper and lower left corners of the sheet. A grapevine with a few clusters of fruit curls behind his lower limbs and meanders across the background. Gray washes and sketchy lines are layered behind the vine. A tiny uppercase “R” appears to be penned near the lower right corner. Lower in that corner, a round stamp has a crown over an uppercase “W” above the letters “JCR.”
Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Pan Reclining, possibly c. 1610, red and black chalk with red wash and gouache, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1978.17.1

Pan Reclining

Sir Peter Paul Rubens · possibly c. 1610 · red and black chalk with red wash and gouache ·  Accession ID  1978.17.1

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Fragmentary Studies for a Crucifixion [verso]

Andries Both · possibly c. 1634 · pen and brown ink ·  Accession ID  1985.41.1.b

Andries Both, An Artist Seated at His Easel [recto], possibly c. 1634, pen and brown ink, Gift of Alice Steiner, 1985.41.1.a

An Artist Seated at His Easel [recto]

Andries Both · possibly c. 1634 · pen and brown ink ·  Accession ID  1985.41.1.a

Pellegrino Tibaldi, The Holy Family with the Infant John the Baptist, c. 1546, pen and brown ink with brown wash and white gouache over black chalk, squared with black chalk on green-gray laid paper (originally blue), with a part of the lower edge replaced, Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2007.111.169

The Holy Family with the Infant John the Baptist

Pellegrino Tibaldi · c. 1546 · pen and brown ink with brown wash and white gouache over black chalk, squared with black chalk on green-gray laid paper (originally blue), with a part of the lower edge replaced ·  Accession ID  2007.111.169

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The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar

John Trumbull · 1787 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2014.136.100

Bibliography

1938

  • Sawitsky, William. "The American Work of Benjamin West." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 62, no. 4 (October 1938): 433-462.

1982

  • Abrams, Ann Uhry. "A New Light on Benjamin West's Pennsylvania Instruction." Winterthur Portfolio 17 (1982): 243-257.

1986

  • Von Erffa, Helmut, and Allen Staley. The Paintings of Benjamin West. New Haven and London, 1986.

1989

  • Benjamin West; American Painter at the English Court. Essay by Allen Staley. Exh. cat. The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1989.

1995

  • Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 316-317.