Portrait of Benjamin West (1818 or later): Art, History and Details

Portrait of Benjamin West (1818 or later) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Thomas Lawrence (British, 1769–1830).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This bust-length portrait of the prominent American artist, Benjamin West, was allegedly painted by Thomas Lawrence. Although its attribution remains uncertain, the portrait's style and execution recalls other portraits of West by Lawrence, including the full-length painting now in the National Gallery, London. This smaller version may have been created when West was at an advanced age, and no longer able to stand for extended periods of time. However, as an exact, yet more freely painted likeness of the London portrait, this version also may be a copy made by Lawrence or one of his pupils after the full-length version.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of Benjamin West
• Date: 1818 or later
• Creator attribution: Thomas Lawrence (British, 1769–1830)
• Culture: England, 18th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 102 x 88.5 x 11 cm (40 3/16 x 34 13/16 x 4 5/16 in.); Unframed: 76.2 x 63.5 cm (30 x 25 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1916.2059

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.
• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 2 (1917): 26-37.
• "Recent Changes in the Painting Galleries." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 5, no. 2/3 (1918): 22-27.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.