West, Benjamin "Mr. West and Family."

Benjamin West.  "Mr. West and Family." 

London: John Boydell, 1779.  20 x 25 1/2 (image).  Stipple engraving.  Engraving.  Hair margins.  All margins trimmed just to or just into image.  Title is separate having been trimmed off sometime in the past and is now encapsulated in mylar envelope.  A few spots.  Print mounted to an archival backing with margins.  Strong and even impression. 

By 1772, when the original painting was created, Benjamin West was established in London as a history painter and portraitist, and his family visited from Pennsylvania.  Historians have assumed that he made this group portrait for his family so they could remember these elder Quakers.  Benjamin West holds his palette and maulstick and stands to the right looking past his father and brother at his family.  Closest to him is his father, John, next his half brother Thomas, and Betsy Shewell West holds Benjamin West, Jr. while Raphael leans on his mothers chair and looks out to engage the viewer.  The appeal of this image went far beyond the austere and serious West family because John Boydell decided to publish and distribute this stipple engraving, probably to Quakers, in Great Britain and in America.  The Quakers would have been proud that one of their own was history painter to George III.  The original painting is now in the private collection of the late Paul Mellon in Upperville, Virginia.