ciety of Friends at Springfield were so convinced of the greatness of the lad's gifts that after solemn deliberations they allowed him to adopt art as a profession. When eighteen years old his mother died, and he set up as a portrait-painter at Philadelphia, and afterwards at Lancaster and New York. Then, with the assistance of 50l. from a merchant named Kelly, he went to Italy. The ship in which he sailed was protected from Gibraltar to Leghorn by a convoy under the command of Captain Charles Meadows (afterwards Earl Manvers), who remained his friend in after life. From Leghorn he proceeded to Rome, where he arrived on 10 July 1760, and obtained introductions to Cardinal Albani and other persons of note. The young American attracted much curiosity on account of the semi-savage life he was supposed to have led, but he soon distinguished himself by a portrait of Thomas Robinson (afterwards Lord Grantham), and was introduced to Raffaelle Mengs and Pompeo Battoni. The fame of the portrait reached his friends in America, and Chief-justice Allen and Governor Hamilton determined to supply him with funds. He remained in Italy three years, making friends and reputation wherever he went. He visited many of the principal cities of Italy, and was made a member of the academies at Parma, Florence, and Bologna.
In 1763, preceded by a reputation, he came to England with two pictures painted in Rome. Here he was received by three of his American friends, Dr. William Smith (provost of the college at Philadelphia), Chief-justice Allen, and Governor Hamilton. He took lodgings in Bedford Street, Covent Garden, and afterwards in Castle Street, Leicester Fields, and was introduced to Dr. Johnson, Burke, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, who received him kindly, and recommended him to exhibit his pictures. ‘Cymon and Iphigenia,’ ‘Angelica and Medoro,’ and a portrait of General Monckton appeared at the exhibition of the Society of Artists in Spring Garden in 1764. He became a member of the Incorporated Society in 1765, when he exhibited ‘Jupiter and Europa,’ ‘Venus and Cupid,’ and two portraits in fancy dress. In the same year he married Elizabeth Shewell, to whom he was engaged before he left America, and who (accompanied by West's father) came over to marry him. West dropped his quaker habit and manner of speech soon after he settled in England, and, although both he and his wife had been brought up as quakers, they were married at the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (2 Sept. 1765).
In 1766 he exhibited ‘Pylades and Orestes,’ ‘The Continence of Scipio,’ and other works which greatly increased his reputation; but it was a picture of ‘Agrippina landing at Brundusium with the ashes of Germanicus’ which is said to have made his fortune. This was a commission from Robert Hay Drummond [q. v.], archbishop of York, who tried to raise 3,000l., to enable West to give up portrait-painting and devote himself to historical art; but this failing, he introduced West (in 1767 or 1768) to the king, who admired ‘Agrippina,’ and suggested ‘The Departure of Regulus from Rome’ as a subject for another historical picture, for which his majesty gave him a commission. From this time till the king became permanently insane the royal favour never left him. He was one of the four chosen to draw up the plan of the Royal Academy, and was one of the original members nominated by the king. West exhibited ‘Regulus’ at its first exhibition in 1769. In 1772 he was appointed historical painter to the king, and in 1790 surveyor of the royal pictures. He was employed to decorate St. George's Hall, Windsor, with eight pictures from the life of Edward III, and the royal oratory with a series of thirty-six on the progress of revealed religion, twenty-eight of which were executed. He also painted a number of royal portraits, singly or in groups, and received other commissions, including one for a copy of his celebrated picture of the ‘Death of Wolfe.’ This picture was the first in which a modern battle was represented in modern costume instead of that of Greeks and Romans. The feeling against such a daring innovation was very strong, and when West's intention was understood, Sir Joshua Reynolds called upon West, with the archbishop of York, and tried to dissuade him from his project; but West was firm, and said: ‘The event to be commemorated happened in the year 1759, in a region of the world unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and at a period of time when no warriors who wore such costume existed. The subject I have to represent is a great battle fought and won, and the same truth which gives law to the historian should rule the painter.’ They came again when the picture was finished, when Reynolds said to Drummond: ‘West has conquered; he has treated the subject as it ought to be treated. I retract my objections. I foresee that this picture will not only become one of the most popular, but will occasion a revolution in art.’ All, however, were not convinced, and James Barry (1741–1806) [q. v.], in protest against such an indignity to historical art, painted the same subject with all the figures nude. Reynolds's prophecies
