Colonel Guy Johnson and Karonghyontye (Captain David Hill)
1776
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 202 x 138 cm (79 1/2 x 54 5/16 in.) framed: 222.6 x 160 x 9.5 cm (87 5/8 x 63 x 3 3/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CAB
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Accession Number
1940.1.10
Art Historical Context
Benjamin West's *Colonel Guy Johnson and Karongontye (Captain David)*, painted in 1776, captures a pivotal moment amid the American Revolutionary War. The oil-on-canvas portrait (202 x 138 cm) depicts British Superintendent of Indian Affairs Guy Johnson alongside the Mohawk leader Karongontye, known as David Hill. Commissioned by Johnson himself, it symbolizes the strategic alliance between British forces and Native American nations, who supported the Crown against colonial rebels. West, a leading Anglo-American Neoclassical artist and historical painter to King George III, crafted this work d...
About the Artist
Benjamin West · 1738–1820
Benjamin West, born on October 10, 1738, in Springfield, Pennsylvania, emerged as one of the most influential painters of his era despite being entirely self-taught. Growing up in a Quaker family in colonial America, West displayed prodigious talent from childhood, creating portraits and religious scenes with materials gifted by local patrons. By his late teens, he had garnered enough support to t...