Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/333

 after his death his gallery in Newman Street was open to the public, but it attracted few visitors. His remaining works were sold by Robins in May 1829, when 181 pictures realised 19,137 guineas, ‘Death on the Pale Horse’ fetching two thousand guineas, and ‘Christ Rejected’ three thousand guineas. This shows that, though his gallery was deserted, his reputation outlived him for many years; but in 1840 a picture of the ‘Annunciation,’ for which he had received eight hundred guineas from the vestry of St. Marylebone, London, was sold for 10l.

West's private life was irreproachable. He was extremely industrious, and produced over four hundred works. He bore successes and reverses with equanimity. He was kind to young artists, free from jealousy, and generous beyond his means. Of good presence and gentle manners, he held his own in distinguished society, and filled with dignity the office of president of the Royal Academy. His serenity was sustained by his profound belief in his own genius—a belief which increased with his years. Leigh Hunt has left a charming picture of the kind, vain old man in his stately house, surrounded by his own large pictures.

West delivered a few addresses to the students of the Royal Academy, and published a few letters on public subjects, but they were of little merit. This was partly due to want of education, for he could scarcely write a sentence without faults of spelling and grammar. It is somewhat difficult to understand the great reputation achieved by West in his lifetime, for the tameness of his ‘historical’ and ‘biblical’ pictures is unredeemed by any beauty of colour or execution; but it must be remembered that he was regarded as the founder of historical painting in England, and he had no serious rival (except Benjamin Robert Haydon [q. v.]) in this class of art. The patronage of the king certainly gave him position, but the artists and connoisseurs of the day, and the critics also, with few exceptions, like ‘Peter Pindar’ and ‘Antony Pasquin,’ were loud in his praise. Sir Thomas Lawrence, in an address to the students of the Royal Academy in 1823, spoke of his compositions ‘as far surpassing contemporary merit on the continent, and as unequalled at any period below the schools of the Caracci.’ His chief claim to remembrance is nevertheless his ‘Death of Wolfe,’ by which he effected a much-needed revolution in modern art.

A full-length portrait by Lawrence of West in his painting-room was painted for the Prince of Wales in 1811, and was presented to the National Gallery by William IV in 1836; a copy by C. R. Leslie is in the Boston Athenæum. Another portrait by Lawrence was engraved for the first edition of Cunningham's ‘Lives.’ A portrait by Gainsborough was engraved by Watson in 1785, and one by Falconet was engraved by D. Pariset. His bust was made in 1819 by Chantrey, and the medal already mentioned by George Mills. The Chantrey bust is in the National Portrait Gallery, which also possesses two portraits of West by Gilbert Stuart.

Belonging to the National Gallery are the following pictures by West: ‘Cleombrotus ordered into Banishment by Leonidas II, King of Sparta,’ ‘Pylades and Orestes brought as Victims before Iphigenia,’ ‘Christ healing the Sick in the Temple,’ the ‘Last Supper,’ and the ‘Installation of the Order of the Garter.’ They are not exhibited in Trafalgar Square, but are ‘on loan’ to museums in the provinces. At Hampton Court are ‘The Death of Bayard,’ ‘The Oath of Hannibal,’ ‘Germanicus and the Wife of Arminius,’ ‘St. Peter denying Christ,’ ‘Cyrus liberating the Family of Astyages,’ ‘St. George and the Dragon,’ ‘Romulus leaving Rome,’ and eight royal portraits.

The elder of West's two sons, (1769–1850), followed his father's profession with some success. He painted ‘Orlando and Oliver’ for Boydell's ‘Shakespeare Gallery,’ and designed a frontispiece for Leigh Hunt's ‘Juvenilia.’ According to Leslie he had more talent than industry. He died at Bushey Heath on 22 May 1850.



WEST, CHARLES (1816–1898), physician, son of a baptist minister, was born in London on 8 Aug. 1816. His father kept a school, in which he was educated, and in 1833 he entered as a medical student at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. After two years he went for a year to Bonn, and