Benjamin West
Medium
mezzotint and engraving in black on wove paper mounted to brown wove paper
Dimensions
image (irregular): 5.56 × 5.56 cm (2 3/16 × 2 3/16 in.) sheet (trimmed to plate): 6.67 × 6.19 cm (2 5/8 × 2 7/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of William Wilson Corcoran)
Accession Number
2015.19.1584.11.1
Art Historical Context
This intimate 1798 portrait print captures Benjamin West, the influential American-born history painter who rose to prominence in London as a founder of the Royal Academy and mentor to a generation of artists. Created by French émigré Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin, the work reflects the transatlantic artistic exchanges of the late eighteenth century, when European-trained talents documented leading cultural figures on both sides of the Atlantic. Saint-Mémin specialized in small-scale profile portraits, often produced with the aid of mechanical tracing devices before being fin...
About the Artist
Charles B. J. Févret de Saint-Mémin
**Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin** Born on March 12, 1770, in Dijon, France, to marquis Bénigne-Charles Févret de Saint-Mémin, a former conseiller au Parlement de Bourgogne, and Victoire-Marie de Motmans, a creole from Port-au-Prince, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin received a military education at the École Militaire in Paris, graduating in 1785. He served as a cad...