At the time of his death in 1820, Benjamin West was the most famous
artist in the English-speaking world, and much admired throughout
Europe. From humble beginnings in Pennsylvania, he had become the
first American artist to study in Italy, and within a few short
years of his arrival in London, was instrumental in the foundation
of the Royal Academy of Arts (he succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds to
become its second President) and became history painter to King
George III. In his lifetime, West's meteoric rise to prominence and
the great pleasure he took in his success attracted criticism, and
his posthumous reputation took a savage mauling from Victorian
critics, one of whom dubbed him 'The Monarch of Mediocrity'. But
even at his critical nadir, West's most celebrated work, The Death
of General Wolfe, commemorating the British victory at the Battle
of Quebec in 1759 and first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1771,
continued to fascinate. Although it was not, as is sometimes
claimed, the first history painting to feature contemporary
costume, it was the first picture in such a vein to become a
critical and popular success in Britain. West remains today the
most neglected and misunderstood of Britain's great
eighteenth-century artists, lacking the social bite of Hogarth, the
bravura of Reynolds or the easy elegance of Gainsborough. Nor was
he a forceful writer (unlike Hogarth and Reynolds), and he did not
possess the intellectual credentials to which so many of his fellow
artists aspired. And yet, as Loyd Grossman asserts in his new book,
West was extraordinarily in tune with the artistic and intellectual
currents that swirled through his turbulent times. He was in the
vanguard of both Neoclassicism and Romanticism, and among the very
first artists to give visual expression to the exciting and heroic
qualities of contemporary events, as opposed to episodes dredged up
from the biblical, classical or mythological past, which had long
enjoyed the highest artistic status. West's Wolfe was painted at a
time when Europeans were just beginning to abandon the tendency to
look backwards. Men and women of letters, philosophers and
historians were increasingly convinced that modernity could equal
and even surpass the achievements of the ancient Greeks and Romans.
This new-found ability to believe in the value of the present and
to look forward to a progressive future is very much the foundation
of the 'modern' attitude that has affected the way we live and
think ever since. While acknowledging that West's reputation is
still precarious, Grossman explains why Wolfe was such an instant
success and why this thrilling work of art continues to exercise
such a strong grip on our imaginations nearly 250 years after it
was first shown to the public. He situates West in the midst of
Enlightenment thinking about history and modernity, and seeks to
demolish some of the prejudices about the talent and intentions of
the young man from the Pennsylvania frontier who attained such
eminence at the British court.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
