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— to their exhibition in 1766, with ' The Continence of Scipio/ and received several commissions. He painted ' Agrippina with the Ashes of Germanic us ' for the Arch- bishop of York, who was so much pleased with it that he introduced him to George III., who gave him a commission to paint ' The Departure of Regulus from Rome,' the commencement of a long course of Royal patronage and favour. In 1768 he was one of four artists who submitted to the King the plan for a Royal Academy, which received His Majesty's sanction, and he became one of the first members.
In 1772 the Kin:* appointed him his historical painter, and employed him upon a large series of pictures at Windsor Castle illustrative of English history, and upon the portraits of himself, his Queen, and the Royal Family, both singlv and in groups. In 1790 he was appointed Surveyor of the Royal Pictures, and in 1792 he was elected, on the death of Reynolds, President of the Royal Academy, biit declined the proffered honour of knighthood. On some Difference as to the power of the Council, and some fancied coldness on their part, he resigned the presidentship, but at the next annual election, 1805, he was re-elected, it is said unanimously, with the exception of one vote for Mrs. Lloyd, then an Academician, and that Fuseli, being taxed with giving this vote, said: 'Well, suppose I did, she is qualified, and is not one old woman as good as another ? ' an instance certainly of his little appreciation of West.
Among his works at this period were several sacred subjects, but his most popular pictures were his ■ Death of Wolfe/ ' Penn's Treaty with the Indians/ and * The Battle of La Hogue ; ' in the former of which, aban- doning classic costume, he had the courage to adopt the modern and appropriate dress, and by his success to establish that mode of treating heroic subjects of our own time. During 33 years he painted for the King, and had received from his gracious patron 34,187/., and his employment only ter- minated with the illness which led to his sovereign's death. He then painted several large sacred pictures, * Christ Healing the Sick.' now in the National Gallery, for which he received 3000 guineas; * Christ Rejected/ exhibited in 1814 ; and ' Death on the rale Horse/ 1817. But his long career was drawing to a close, and he died in Newman Street on the 11th March, 1820, in his 82nd year, and was buried with great ceremony in St Paul's Cathedral.
The greater part of the pictures which remained in his possession on his death were sold by auction, by Robins, in May, 1829. They amounted to 181 in number, and realised 19,137 guineas. His ' Death on the Pale Horse ' fetched 2000 guineas ;
- Christ Rejected/ for which it is said he
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had been offered 8000/.. only 3000 guineas ; but when the class or subjects is consi- dered, these are really high prices, which would not at this time even be realised, though they are no doubt less than would have been attained when he was in the height of his career. His large picture of 1 The Annunciation ' was sold by auction in 1840. It had for some years been placed in Marylebone Church, and at the sale the Vestry's minute was read, ordering West's price of 800/. to be paid to him for it. After a considerable time 10/. was bid, and the picture was really sold for that price. It is indeed difficult to account for the high position which he held in art in his own day as compared with ours. It cannot be attributed wholly to Royal patronage, for it was loudly expressed by his brother artists, and echoed by the press and the public. Sir Thomas Lawrence in his annual address, 1823, said : ' Mr. West produced a series of compositions from sacred and profane history, profoundly studied and ex- ecuted with the most facile power, which not only were superior to any former pro- ductions of English art, but far surpassing contemporary merit on the continent, were unequalled at any period below the schools of the Caracci ; ' and Sir Martin Shee, when examined before a Committee of the House of Commons in 1835, characterised Mr. West almost in the same words as 'the greatest historical painter. I have no hesi- tation in saying, since the days of the Caracci.' But coming down to later times, Mr. Haydon, assuredly no fiiend of acade- micians, wrote of him in 1829 : ' In drawing and form his style was beggarly, skinny, and mean. His light and shade was scattered, his colour brick-dust, his impression un- sympathetical, and his women without beauty or heart.' The public, too, showed no interest in his works. Three years after his death the exhibition of his collected labours was totally neglected and deserted. Exalted to a high pinnacle in his lifetime, he has since been unjustly depreciated. His aim was at least high. He attempted great works, deemed no subject, even the most sacred, above his powers, and we owe to him the abandonment of classic costume in the treatment of modern events. Yet it must be admitted that his compositions are more studied than natural, the action is often conventional, and his works fail to sustain his great aims. His figures want indi- viduality ; his manner is flat, painty, and his textures all alike ; his backgrounds are devoid of contrasts; his colour hot and wanting in variety of tint. During his long and laborious life he painted above 400 works, besides numerous sketches. ( The Progress of Genius/ memoirs of his early life and studies, by John Gait, was pub- lished in 1816* His works were engraved
