Benjamin West

“ When Benjamin West was at work upon his great picture of the "Institution of the Garter," the King of England was delighted when the Duke of Buckingham assured him that West had an ancestral right to a place among the warriors and knights of his own painting. The Quaker associates of the parents of the artist, the patriarchs of Pennsylvania, regarded their asylum in America as the place for affectionate intercourse—free from all the military predilections and political jealousies of Europe. ”

“ Enterprise, activity, shrewdness, industry, that’s what a young man wants. Get rid of your fol-de-rol notions about art. Benjamin West was a great man, Sir; but he was an exception, and besides he lived in England. I respect Benjamin West, Sir, of course. We all do. He made a good thing of it. Take the word of an old man who has seen life and knows the world, and remember that, with all your fine fiddling, it is money makes the mare go. Old men like me don’t mince matters, Sir. It’s money—money!”
Abel thought old men sometimes minced grammar a little, but he did not say so. ”

“ He resided at Rotterdam and visited Düsseldorf, where the honor of knighthood was conferred upon him.
Benjamin West (1738-1820) .
Born near Springfield, Chester Co., Pa.; died in London, England. He received some instruction from William Williams, a painter in Philadelphia, and established himself there in 1756 as a portrait painter. He came to New York and in 1760 visited Italy and from there went to London, where he remained. He succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1792 as president of the Royal Academy.
William E. West (1788-1857) . ”

“ The awakening of genius in Benjamin West has been distinctly traced to this incident, as the time when he first discovered that he could imitate the forms of such objects as pleased his sense of sight. And the incident itself has been aptly styled "the birth of fine arts in the New World."
The Quaker boy, in course of years, left the wilderness of America to become the president of the Royal Academy in London. His irreproachable character not less than his excellence as an artist, gave him commanding position among his contemporaries. ”

“ Benjamin West showed more originality and courage when, in the last century, and in defiance of the opinion of such men as Sir Joshua Reynolds, he dared to break loose from the conventional, and created a revolution in historical art by permitting General Wolfe to die in the clothes in which he went to battle. ”

“ It is easy to forget, however, that the Americans were not a primitive people. They were folk with a literary inheritance, of which albeit they often showed little knowledge. It was not for them to invent new forms, but to press new wine into old bottles. Of Irving, moreover, it should be said that he drew freely upon a vein of delicious humor, as in his Knickerbocker History of New York, which may be truly characterized as American.
The annals of American art in these years are even more bare. Benjamin West, to be sure, was born in Pennsylvania, but he achieved eminence in England. ”

“ Born, 1738; died, 1820 The story of the picture. It is little wonder that the artist, Benjamin West, who overcame so many obstacles to follow his chosen calling, should admire a man like General Wolfe, who also had a great many difficulties to overcome. Each was born with an overwhelming desire,—the one to be a great artist; the other to be a great soldier. Both achieved their desire through their own earnest and praiseworthy effort. Perhaps the greatest difficulty James Wolfe had to contend with was his poor constitution and constant ill health. ”

“ Action at night in Chesapeake bay between the United States schooner Adeline and the British schooner Lottery; the latter it is supposed was sunk.
1819. Frederick Henry Jacobi, a German philosophical writer, died.
1820. Benjamin West, the painter, died at London, aged 82. He was born at Springfield, Penn., 1738. The first indications of his genius were elicited at the age of seven years, by drawing the portrait of his sleeping sister in red and black ink. He began painting as a profession at the age of 18, and four years after went to England. ”

“ When a boy of seven he began to show his inclinations to art. According to a well-known story, he was sitting by the cradle of his sister’s child, watching its sleep, when the infant happened to smile in its dreams, and, struck with its beauty, young Benjamin got some paper, and drew its portrait. The career thus begun was prosecuted amid many difficulties; but his perseverance overcame every obstacle, and at the age of eighteen he settled in Philadelphia as a portrait-painter. ”

“ Trumbull, Stuart, Dunlap, and many others, long after they had forgotten the natural foibles of West, had reason to remember how great had been the services he had rendered to the aspiring artists of his transatlantic home.
Since the death of West—whom we must consider one of the greatest men our country has produced—it has become the fashion to decry his art and belittle his character. This seems to be a mistake which reflects discredit upon his detractors. Men should be judged not absolutely, but relatively; not compared with perfection, but with their contemporaries and their opportunities. ”

“ As if to emphasize the truth of these observations, as well as of the famous prophecy of Bishop Berkeley, the artist to whom American art owes its rise, and for many years its greatest source of encouragement, was named West, and was of Quaker lineage. Such was the rude condition of the arts in the neighborhood at that time that the first initiation of West into art was as simple as that of Giotto. At nine years of age he drew hairs from a cat's tail and made himself a brush. Colors he obtained by grinding charcoal and chalk, and crushing the red blood out from the blackberry. ”

“ There is a tropical vivacity in the manner in which with us bloom and fruition suddenly burst forth after a period of apparently unpromising barrenness. Thus West and Copley appeared almost full-fledged in art genius and capacity to adapt themselves to occupy prominent positions in Europe, and yet there were but few premonitory signs to indicate that the country was prepared for the advent of such artists. ”

“ We know you are our friend, because you take our part, and that is the reason we do what you tell us to do. You say you love your red children: we think we love you as much if not more than you love us. ”

“ Her countenance becomes dejected—she seldom smiles—clothes herself in rags, and with disheveled hair and spots of black paint on her cheeks, wanders about in a pensive mood, seldom shedding tears, except when alone in the woods. ”

“ And, breathing softly from the mild South-west,
The Indian Summer mitigates the air,
Me it delights, leaving the towers of men,
With devious feet, and void of fixed intent,
To wander far into the country still;
My path, some grassy road untrodden lone,
Which leads the steps through woods of dwarfish pines,
Where dwells unscared the solitary jay,
And sings the cricket, sole inhabitants.
In these sweet solitudes the soul becomes
Tranquil as seas mid happy isles embayed ”

“ How different from the streets of a city upon a sabbath morn, when crowds of well-dressed persons are seen moving in every direction; when the cheerful bells are sounding, and the beautiful smiling children are hurrying in troops to Sunday school! ”

“ The flashes of the guns, the dazzling brilliancy of the star shells, the long lines of varicolored signals as they went up from many camps and out-posts, and the flares dropped from scores of planes, passing and repassing in the darkness overhead, can never be forgotten. ”

“ If the thirst for blood had been less rapacious on the part of the Americans, or their respect for a flag of truce something greater, the further destruction of life would have been spared; and the nation preserved from the charge of having fired upon a flag, held sacred throughout the world. ”

“ The Plague of Ganges stalks and slays.
For he from Indian vales has come,
Following the circle of the sun;
Through Balk, and over Oxus’ stream,
Gliding as soundless as a dream,
Into the cities of the West,
That quail before the giant pest.
The stir of life in silence dies,
Where’er the mighty vampyre flies ”

“ Dear hand, that carved these love knots, ’neath the mould
Thou now alas! art shrunken, pulseless, cold!
And has he left the world forevermore,
That still contains his ill-starred paramour?
Oh, woe is me! Oh sickening, keen distress! ”

“ PAN AND LAÏS.
I.
Once on a time, grown tired of shepherd’s fare,
From hilly Arcady with swift descent,
Rough Pan in tunic wove of subtile air,
Invisible to sacred Corinth went;
Through his aerial vesture vision-proof,
No mortal eye could see or horn or hoof.
II.
With soundless tread he passed from street to street,
Through which as arteries the sea-winds blew;
And gorgeous shows the mighty rustic greet,
Where’er from right to left his glance he threw;
Poor seem his pastoral hills and forests all,
Matched with the Isthmus’ peerless capital. ”

“ Now the sweet autumnal Summer which the Indian loved so well,
Over mountain, plain, and hollow sheds the glory of its spell.
Softer breathe the gentle zephyrs, and like visitants they seem
From a latitude benigner, from a climate more serene. ”

“ The grape, the plum, the gooseberry and various other native fruits abound,—the wild honeysuckle gives its perfume to the air, and a thousand indigenous flowers mingle their diversified hues with the verdure of the plain. But all this fertility of soil and scenic beauty has produced no ameliorating effect upon the savages. ”

“ When the year begins to wane,
In the grass and in the hedges
Trillest thou thy wiry strain.
Harp with clasps of ivory strengthened,
Unto thee does not belong;
Thine own body is a cithern,
Its pulsations make thy song. ”

“ The rapacity of our people, for their peltries and their land, the feeble execution of laws made for their protection, and the loose morality which has governed our general intercourse with them, have wasted their numbers, debased their character, and tarnished the honor of that nation, which, from the very organization of its government, has claimed to be their benevolent protector.
The plan of removing the Indians beyond the limits of the United States is not new. ”

“ Between tall sculptured piles that line the way,
Cool lymph in crystal jets, and sheaf-like spires,
From marble gorges spouted ceaselessly;
Whose myriad drops with charmed eyes he sees,
Bestrode by interwoven Irides. ”

“ If some time our great men talk long and loud at our council fires, but shed one drop of white men's blood, our young warriors, as thick as the stars of the night, will leap on board of our great boats, which fly on the waves, and over the lakes—swift as the eagle in the air—then penetrate the woods, make the big guns thunder, and the whole heavens red with the flames of the dwellings of their enemies. ”

“ In the dawn of her life and the bloom of her spring,
Dark Asrael fanned her to sleep with his wing;
And her form, when the spirit had flown from its shrine,
Lay like marble, that’s moulded by chisel divine.
Oh, why was she garnered in life’s early bloom
To grace with her beauty the clods of the tomb?
There were victims for death, who were weary and old,
And who longed for the slumber unbroken and cold.
But her loveliness lives, for escaped from its urn,
In blossoms and odors her dust shall return—
And the Hesper-like glory, that shone in her eye,
To-night will be beaming a star in the sky. ”

“ With roseal lustre and Hebean bloom;
Yet in their marble smoothness lay enshrined
A Titan’s energy—and his large eyes,
That dreamed and languished like Endymion’s,
When, vine-like, round his neck the lucent arms
Of Lycomedes’ daughter were entwined,
Glowed like a pard’s in fight. A glossy wealth
Of sunny Apollonian tresses loosely rolled
Adown his ivory shoulders. In his breast
A fiery-blooded heart throbbed fiercely—now
In sorrow unappeased venting itself
Above his fallen friend ”

“ Your subtle fragrance and your glorious bloom
But call to mind a sweeter far than you—
My Prince and Lord, my Beautiful and True,
Whose cheek was burnished with as bright a hue
As decks your leaves, whose eyes were wont to shine
Upon my glowing face like stars benign.
Again I hear the South wind’s murmurs low
Making the earth with life and beauty glow,
But now more icy than the Sarsar’s breath,
In deserts old the minister of death,
Around my worn and wasted frame it sighs,
Recalling soft Elysian memories. ”

“ The contest with Black Hawk and his party, destroyed the lives of four or five hundred Indian men, women and children—about two hundred citizens of the United States—and cost the government near two millions of dollars! Such are the results of a war commenced and waged by a great nation, upon a remnant of poor ignorant savages;—a war which had its origin in avarice and political ambition, which was prosecuted in bad faith and closed in dishonor. ”

“ Borne on to good or unevaded ill.
Ere weeping through the gates of life we came,
Our lots were fixed, each act and thought decreed:
In vain we strive—we stem the tide in vain;—
Alike the idiot’s brain, the sage’s rede.
Powerless before the unimpassioned Doom
The form of beauty and the lofty mind;
The shuttle speeds athwart the fatal loom—
Our lots are woven as the threads unwind.
Sorrow and gladness intertwined are ours,
Or woe unmixed, or pleasure undefiled;
Exult not, though thy path be strewn with flowers,
Oft mid their bloom the venomed asp lies coiled. ”