Portrait of Benjamin West (Stuart)

Portrait of Benjamin West is a 1785 portrait painting by the American artist Gilbert Stuart of the noted Anglo-American painter Benjamin West. West, a future President of the Royal Academy settled in Britain during the 1760s. His epic 1770 battle painting The Death of General Wolfe established him as a leading artist.^[1]

Portrait of Benjamin West
Artist	Gilbert Stuart
Year	1785
Type	Oil on canvas
Location	National Portrait Gallery, London

West is shown seated in front of a dark green curtain. His hand rests on books including Tobias Smollett's book History of England. In the background is West's as yet unfished religious painting Moses Receiving the Law.^[2] It was originally commissioned by John Boydell who ran the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery. It is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London having been acquired in 1872.^[3]

See also

• Portrait of Benjamin West, an 1810 portrait of the artist by Thomas Lawrence