History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 44

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

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The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has in its possession two drawings by Watson. They are por- traits of Governor Keith and his wife, in India ink. These portraits were made probably between 1717 and 1728. Watson died at Perth Amboy, Aug. 22, 1728.

Althoughi no real artist is known to have settled in Philadelphia before 1746, there were certainly some " painters," whose ambition did not aim higher than

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the execution of a tavern or shop sign. If many of drawing and expression, and the coloring, which is these signs were mere doubs, some gave unmistakable still fresh and natural, gives reason to think the painter must have been well taught. It is hardly possible that a native self-educated artist could at that time have done so well." The portrait of Tench Francis is a kitcat (size of life), in a handsome full dress of the time (1746). proof of artistic taste and skill. In our chapter on Inns aud Taverns we have described some of these signs, and mentioned some sign-painters whose names belong to the history of art and artists, but they belong to a later period than that of which we are presently speaking. In 1702, or thereabout, one of those pseudo-artists executed a painting,-the earliest known to have been done in Philadelphia,-which is in the possession of the Historical Society of Penn- sylvania. It represents the royal arms, and bears Queen Anne's motto, " Semper eadem." It was doubt- less made, " by order," to hang behind and above the seat of the judges in the old court-house. The work- man who did the job was, to all appearance, but a second-rate sign-painter.

Another memento of those bygone days is to be seen in the Philadelphia Library. It is a view of the city of Philadelphia, roughly done in bright colors, and shows the painter to have been ignorant of the laws of perspective and the contrasts of light and shadow. This picture had found its way to England, and it was discovered in an old curiosity-shop by the Hon. George M. Dallas while he was minister to Eng- land. Mr. Dallas purchased it and presented it to the Library Company of Philadelphia. Much inter- est is attached to this picture, notwithstanding its want of artistic merit, as one of the oldest pictorial relics connected with the history of Philadelphia. It had been the subject of a communication to the Antiquarian Society of London, and was spoken of by James N. Barker in an historical essay published many years ago. The painter of this old view of Philadelphia was Peter Cooper, whose history is briefly told in the minutes of the City Council, where it is entered that "Peter Cooper, painter," was ad- mitted a freeman of the city in May, 1717. In the same year Peter Luolie, Aaron Huliot, and Samuel Johnson, all painters, were also admitted.

William Dunlap, in his " History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States," says that there were few artists in the country prior to 1751, and mentions Blackburn, Green, and Theus as having been in the colonies in 1750. But as early as 1746, Robert Feke and William Williams, two painters of merit, resided in Philadelphia. Feke is supposed to have been the descendant of a Dutch family which settled at the head of Oyster Bay, N. Y., , pleted, Williams represented to Governor Denny at an early period. That he resided in Philadelphia some years can be a matter of but little doubt. His signature is upon a portrait of Mrs. Willing, wife of Charles Willing, mayor, 1748-49, in the possession of Dr. Charles Willing, a descendant. A portrait of Tench Francis, attorney-general, signed "R. Feke, 1746," is in the possession of Joshua Francis Fisher.

A writer in the Historical Magazine, vol. iii., speak- ing of Feke, says, "The portraits ( Mrs. Willing and Tench Francis) referred to are rather remarkable for

Another writer in the Historical Magazine makes out Feke's history to be somewhat romantic. Ac- cording to this writer, Feke, although of Dutch de- scent, was a Quaker, who joined the Baptist Church, and thereby gave offense to his father. The young man then embraced a seafaring life, and in one of his voyages was taken prisoner by the Spaniards and carried off to Spain. While a captive in that far-off land, he sought to relieve the tediousness of a long imprisonment by some rude attempts at painting. The sale of these poor pictures, after his release, procured him the means of returning to America. He then settled at Newport, R. I., painted portraits, and is said to have several times visited Philadelphia. If this be true, young Feke while a prisoner must have had the good fortune to study with some of the Spanish masters. He died in Bermuda, at the age of forty-four years. Among his pictures yet remaining are those of Rev. John Callendar, of Newport, and the wife of Governor Wanton.

William Williams was an English painter of some merit. He must have been in Philadelphia long enough to earn a reputation as an artist of experi- ence and taste, since it was to him Mr. Pennington brought Benjamin West, then a mere boy, for instruc- tion in his art. The precise date on which this took place is not known, but it must have been prior to 1750, since West commenced portrait aud historical painting in 1753; he was then only fifteen years old. When young West was introduced to Williams he had never seen an oil painting, except his own crude attempts made in Chester County. He gazed with admiration on a painting in oil colors, made by Wil- liams for Samuel Shoemaker. Williams felt interested in this boy-artist ; he instructed him in the first rules of his art, permitted him to study his own pictures and drawings, and loaned him the works of Fresnoy and Richardson. Williams was one of the con- tractors for the erection of the second theatre built in Southwark. Some efforts having been made to pre- vent the building of this theatre from being com- that he had contracted to provide a new set of scenery for this theatre, and had painted them ; that the cost was upward of a hundred pounds, which would be lost to him if the theatre were interfered with. So we know him to have been a scene-painter as well as a portrait-painter,-two widely-different branches of the same art. Williams must have left Philadelphia some time after this, for in an advertisement pub- lished in January, 1763, he announced that he had returned from the West Indies, and was to be found

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in Loxley's Court, at the sign of Hogarth's Head, where he was prepared to do painting in general.

Hesselius, an English painter, whom Mr. Dunlap mentions as having settled in Annapolis in 1763, was in Philadelphia in 1751, and he must have lived there for some years prior to that date, unless we are deceived by a similarity of names, for "John Hes- selius" was one of the subscribers to the Philadelphia Dancing Assembly in 1749. The signature "Hes- selius, 1751," is on three fine paintings once in the possession of John William Wallace, also a portrait of Joshua Maddox, merchant, and for some years jus- tice of the peace for Philadelphia County ; a portrait of Mrs. Maddox, his wife ; and a portrait of Mrs. Wal- lace, one of the belles of the Dancing Assembly of 1748. A writer, describing these family pictures, says, "These paintings are of considerable merit. The countenances are delineated with taste and deli- cacy of coloring. The drapery is finely done, the shadows being broad and bold." Hesselius is said to have been a painter of the school of Sir Godfrey Kneller, the broad shadows characteristic of Sir God- frey's style being remarkable in the pictures signed " Hesselius." This and other marked characteristics have caused several pictures to be assigned to Hes- selius, although they bear no signature. Such is the case with a portrait of Miss Mary McCall, daughter of George McCall, which belonged to the Misses Plumsted. Miss McCall was born in 1725. She married William Plumsted, mayor of the city, in 1750, who was the son of Clement Plumsted, also mayor. The Misses Plumsted had another valu- able family picture, the portrait of Mrs. Clement Plumsted, painted by Sir Peter Lely, probably one of his latest works, since he died in England in 1680.

Hesselius went to Maryland some time after 1751. The portraits of Joseph Pemberton, son of Israel, and Anne, his wife, daughter of Joseph Galloway, of Anne Arundel County, Md., are assigned to Hes- selius, for having the characteristics of his style, before mentioned. These portraits were in the possession of the Pemberton family, of Philadelphia. They are three-quarter lengths, life-size. The Walton family had in their possession two portraits by Hesselius.

Benjamin West, the boy artist, revealed his preco- cious talent in Lancaster, where, it is said, he made drawings on poplar boards for Mr. Wayne, and even executed a painting for William Henry, an ingenious mechanic of that town.1 He commenced painting portraits in Philadelphia in 1753, and left that city for New York in 1758. He must have been con- stantly engaged in painting during these six years, for quite a large number of his pictures, dating from

that period, are in the possession of old Philadelphia families. It is asserted in the "Shippen Memoirs" (Balch) that the first professional work of young West was the portrait of Charles Willing. As Mr. Willing was a merchant in Barbadoes, and he only moved to Philadelphia after his marriage, in 1760, it is probable that he had his likeness taken during a prior visit. West was living with Mr. Clarkson, and had won the warm interest of Rev. William Smith, who befriended him in many ways. Besides painting portraits and historical pictures, the industrious lad must have made sketches of scenery in the neighbor- hood. The " Treaty Tree" at Shackamaxon forms a conspicuous feature in his painting of the treaty of William Penn with the Indians, which he executed in England in after-years, and the resemblance is too perfect to admit of his having painted it from memory.

Among the portraits and pictures painted by West during his residence in Philadelphia are the follow- ing : Portraits of Mr. Peter Bard and Mrs. Dinah Bard, of New Jersey; one of the Morris family, of Philadelphia ; a portrait of the Rev. William Smith, in the attitude and style of St. Ignatius, after Murillo; and a historical picture of "The Trial of Susannah," for Mr. Cox ; a portrait of Eleanor Swift, who was born July 8, 1732, and who married Andrew Elliott- probably between 1750 and 1755-together with her daughter, Eleanor Elliott, while a child ; a picture of St. Agnes and the Lamb, and a liead,-in the posses- sion of Edward Shippen ; a portrait of Jenny Gallo- way, born in the year 1745, who married Joseph Ship- pen in 1768, and died in 1801,-in possession of John Shippen, of Pottsville.

A portrait of Chief Justice William Allen, who was on the bench in 1754, was painted by Benjamin West before he left Philadelphia, and is thus described by Brown, in the "Forum," vol. i. pages 248, 249 :

" It is a three-quarter length portrait, and is taken standing. He has a curled wig and ruffled sleeves, but is otherwise dressed as plainly as possible. The costume for the whole dress is apparently of one color, -a not very good shade of brown; the colors may have faded. The face is round, with rather straight features, and is distinguished by bonhomie and good sense rather than by intensity of intellectual action, or by anything æsthetic."

A portrait of Dr. Benjamin Rush, painted by West while Rush was prosecuting his studies in London, belong to Dr. W. Kent Gilbert. It is a kitcat, and handsomely executed.

Portraits of Hon. James Hamilton, Mr. Hare, Robert Hare, and Dr. Preston, in the Philadelphia Library, are ascribed by Tuckermau to this artist.

West's object in removing to New York, where he hoped to obtain better prices for his pictures than he had obtained in Philadelphia, was to earn enough money to enable him to realize the dream of his boy- hood,-to visit Italy and study the works of the great

1 Dunlap says that the Pennsylvania Hospital possessed some of the earliest efforts of West, painted on panel. "The largest is his own com- position, and consists of a white cow, who is the hero of the piece, and sundry trees, houses, men, and ships, combined in a manner perfectly childish. The other le a sea-piece, cepled from a print, with a perfect lack of skill, as might be expected."

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masters. This hope was not disappointed. The young Quaker was destined to be one of those rare examples of genius recognized and encouraged by warm-hearted and liberal men until it bas attained the summit and justified their opinion. This luck, as some of his rivals called the spontaneous homage paid to the godly gift of the artist, never failed West. In New York he painted many portraits, among others that of Mr. Kelly, a wealthy merchant. While en- gaged on this last work, West learned that Mr. Allen, of Philadelphia, was loading a vessel with flour for Leghorn. He mentioned to Mr. Kelly his intention of leaving New York as soon as the latter's portrait was finished, to take passage on that ship. Mr. Kelly, who treated the young painter with much friendli- ness, made bim talk of his plans, and when the por- trait was finished, paid him the price agreed upon and asked him to take charge of a letter for his Phila-

BENJAMIN WEST.

delphia agents. On delivering this letter West learned, to his surprise and delight, that the liberal New York merchant had instructed his Philadelphia agents to pay the young painter the further sum of fifty guineas to help him carry out his studies in Italy. But this was not all: Mr. Allen's son was West's traveling companion on the ship, and when they reached Leghorn the artist was introduced to Messrs. Rutherford & Jackson, the correspondents of Mr. Allen, and these gentlemen gave him letters of rec- ommendation to Cardinal Albani and other patrons of art in Rome, thus smoothing for him those obsta- cles which, as a stranger seeking an introduction in artistic cireles, he would have found difficult to over- come unaided.

Scarcely had he arrived at Rome when he made the acquaintance of Mr. Robinson, an Englishman, who turned out to count among his friends most of the gentlemen for whom West had letters of intro- duction. Mr. Robinson undertook to present the young painter to Cardinal Albani. Mr. Dunlap relates an anecdote of this first interview with the

Roman prelate which is highly creditable to the young painter's powers of observation. The cardinal had made up a party "to witness the impression which the sight of the chef-d'œuvres of antiquity would make upon a native of the New World. The Apollo was first shown him, and his exclamation was, 'How like a young Mohawk warrior!' The Italians, on having the words translated by Mr. Robinson, were mortified. But West, at that gentleman's request, described the Mohawk in his state of native freedom, as seen in those days, his speed, his vigor, his exercise with the bow. When Mr. Robinson interpreted the words, ' I have seen a Mohawk standing in that very attitude intensely pursuing with his eye the flight of the arrow just discharged from the bow,' his auditory were de- lighted by the criticism of the stranger and applauded his untutored acumen."

West was well received hy Pompeio Battoni and by Mengs, the two leading painters in Rome at the time. Battoni, who in contemplating his own work was wont to exclaim, " E viva Battoni !" took pleas- ure in showing his pictures to the young Quaker artist, in whom he did not recognize a possible rival. Mengs gave West some practical and disinterested advice. He told him to stay in Rome only long enough to copy a few statues, then to visit Florence, Bologna, Parma, and Venice, to study the works of the Caracci, of Correggio, Tintoretto, Titian, and Paul Veronese, and having compared the styles of those masters, to come back to Rome and paint a historical picture. West saw the soundness of this advice and carried out the programme, notwithstanding the loss of eleven months, during which he was confined in Florence, in consequence of a fever contracted in Rome. On his return he painted his pictures of "Cimon and Iphige- nia" and " Angelica and Medora," which obtained the academical honors of Rome. Before starting on this artistic tour he had painted the portrait of his new friend, Mr. Robinson. Here, again, his good fortune manifested itself; says Mr. Dunlap, "The applause bestowed on the portrait of Mr. Robinson was men- tioned in a letter from Rutherford & Jackson to Mr. Allen, of Philadelphia, and the letter read hy him to an assemblage of gentlemen at his dinner-table, among whom was Governor Hamilton. Allen men- tioned the sum deposited with him by West before his departure, adding, ' As it must be much reduced he shall not be frustrated in his studies for want of money : I will write to my correspondents to furnish him with whatever he may require.' This generous declaration produced a demand from the Governor that 'he should be considered as joining in the re- sponsibility of the credit.' The consequence was that while West was waiting at Florence for the sum of ten pounds for which he had written to his friends at Leghorn, he received notice from their bankers that they were instructed to give him unlimited credit."

Having accomplished his object in Rome, West de- termined to visit England before returning home.

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This determination changed his whole future; the success that awaited him in London was to separate him forever from his native land. Leaving Rome he stopped at Parma to finish his copy of St. Jerome, a fine picture which has remained in the possession of the family of Mr. Allen, the early and generous friend of the artist. From Parma West proceeded to Paris, where he made but a short stay, and thence to Lon- don. Here his first care was to have his pictures hung up in the public exhibition-room in Spring Garden. The result of this exhibition was the ac- knowledgment of his rare merit as an historical painter and immediate employment for his pencil. He painted for Dr. Newton the "Parting of Hector and Andromache," and for the Bishop of Worcester, the " Return of the Prodigal Son." Dr. Drummond, Archbishop of York, requested him to make him a painting of Agrippina landing with the ashes of Germanicus, as described by Tacitus, and was so de- ' lighted with his rendering of that subject that he asked the king's permission to present the artist and his picture. George III. showed his admiration of this fine painting by ordering another, the subject of which, "The Departure of Regulus from Rome," he selected, and read himself aloud the description of that touching scene from Livy. The royal favor won on that day was never withdrawn during the king's life. He had taken a liking for the young American artist, and became his warm friend as well as his patron. When George III. founded the Royal Academy, this painting of Regulus was the first pic- ture exhibited in it. West's reputation was now established, he had more commissions than he could attend to. The king was a liberal patron, who left him little time to paint for others. The "Death of General Wolfe," the " Death of Epaminondas," the " Death of Chevalier Bayard," "Cyrus Liberating the Family of the King of Armenia," "Segestes and his Danghter brought before Germanicus," were all painted by order of his Majesty.

Afterward came a great work, suggested by West, and which was an undertaking such as few painters could plan and carry out with success. This was the painting of a series of pictures on the progress of re- vealed religion, divided into four dispensations,-the Antediluvian, the Patriarchal, the Mosaical, and the Prophetical. This vast conception comprised thirty- six subjects. They were all sketched, and twenty- eight were executed, when the mental disease which fell upon the king put it in the power of the artist's enemies to show their rancor, and he was informed that he must suspend his work until further orders. While working at this religious gallery he had exe- cuted several other pictures for the king, among others a series of national subjects taken principally from the reign of Edward III., to wit : " Edward the III. em- bracing the Black Prince after the Battle of Cressy ;" "The Installation of the Order of the Garter ;" "The Black Prince receiving the King of France and his son

prisoners at Poictiers ;" "St. George vanquishing the Dragon ;" "Queen Philippa defeating David of Scot- land in the Battle of Neville's Cross ;" "Queen Philippa interceding with Edward for the Burgesses of Calais ;" " King Edward forcing the passage of the Somme ;" "King Edward crowning Sir Enstace de Ribeaumont at Calais." Besides these pictures, which are of large size and among the best of his works, West painted his famous "Battle of La Hogne" and several por- traits of the king and royal family.

On the death of Reynolds, in 1792, the academy selected West for their president. He occupied that honorable position until his return from his visit to Paris, in 1802. George III. no longer reigned, West had ceased to be " painter to the king," and the peace of Amiens opened the doors of the French capital to English visitors. West went to Paris, taking with him his masterpiece, on a small scale, of " Death on the Pale Horse." He was greeted with genuine en- thusiasm by David and other artists of that time; nor were the public men of the French republic-then ruled by Bonaparte as first consul-remiss in their attentions. This reception by foreigners must have been as balm to his wounded feelings, but he had not emptied the cup of bitterness : on his return to Lon- don the animosity shown him by the academy, of which he had been the inspirer and over which he had presided to the general satisfaction, led him to retire from the president's chair. Wyatt was elected in his place, but ere long a revulsion of feeling took place, and the academy again selected West to pre- side over their labors. West was no longer the "young" painter, but in the winter of his age he still showed the sacred fire and energy of his youth. He painted a series of great works that show no declining talent, but the conceptions of a powerful mind ex- ecuted by a firm, masterful hand. His "Christ Heal- ing the Sick," painted as a present to the Pennsyl- vania Hospital of Philadelphia,1 the " Descent of the Holy Ghost on Christ at the Jordan," the "Crnci- fixion," "The Ascension," the "Inspiration of St. Peter," the "Christ Rejected," and the wonderful composition of " Death on the Pale Horse," enlarged from the small picture already mentioned, all date from those late years of his life.

We have not given anything like a complete list of West's numerous works, and this short notice of a life spent abroad is not presented as a biography. We have merely ontlined the high eminence to which the young Quaker artist rose far from his native land. When he went to England, Pennsylvania was a British colony. The Revolution came, and he still remained in London, but he remained an American at heart, and his biographers all agree that George III., who loved the artist, respected the opinions of

1 The original of this picture, first intended for the hospital, was pur- chased by the British institution for three thousand guineas. Tho copy sent to Philadelphia is perhaps superior to the originul, from which it differs materially in some respects.

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the man. Nor is there any inconsistency in West loving his royal friend while his sympathies were with the revolting subjects of that friend. Should he have thrown aside brush and easel and crossed the ocean to shoulder a musket in his country's defense ? The void caused by his absence was unnoticed ; his peaceful pursuit of his work threw a new lustre on the American name, for it gave it a high place in the annals of art.

American students were always sure of a hearty welcome and the best friendly advice from Mr. West ; the needy found that he was as prompt to assist as to advise. Charles Wilson Peale studied under him from 1771 to 1774; Gilbert Stuart, Joseph Wright, and John Trumbull were with him during portions of the American war, and all of them have testified to his kindly disposition and sympathy. Mr. Leslie,

One of our earliest native painters, who was cut off by death ere his undoubted talent had matured and secured to him fame and profit, was John Meng, born in Germantown, Feb. 6, 1734. He was the fifth son of Christopher Meng, a German, who left his native town in one of his letters, quoted by Dunlap in his " His- | of Manheim and came to Philadelphia in the year tory of the Arts of Design," says, "Mr. West was, as you know, at all times delighted to receive Ameri- cans, and no subject of conversation interested him more than the present greatness and future prospects of the United States. His political opinions were known to be too liberal for the party who governed England during the regency and the reign of George IV. Whether owing to this cause or not, he was certainly ont of favor with the court during all the time of George III.'s long seclusion from the world. It was to the credit of that monarch that he never allowed the political opinions of Mr. West to inter- fere with his admiration of him as an artist and his friendship for him as a man. The king died while Mr. West was confined to his bed with his last ill- ness. Raphael West endeavored to keep the news- paper from him, but he guessed the reason, and said, ' I am sure the king is dead, and I have lost the best friend I ever had in my life.'"

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 44

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992