Benjamin West, P.R.A.

Lawrence painted Benjamin West around 1810, depicting the American-born painter who had served as President of the Royal Academy since 1792, succeeding Sir Joshua Reynolds. West, born in Pennsylvania, had become one of the most influential figures in British art, pioneering the neoclassical history painting that Reynolds championed. Lawrence, who would himself become PRA in 1820, portrays his predecessor with dignified warmth. Now in the Yale Center for British Art, the portrait documents the succession of Academy presidents and the institutional culture of British art. West's American origins gave him a unique position in British art, as both insider and outsider.

Lawrence paints his professional mentor and predecessor with evident personal regard, the elderly painter's dignified features rendered with warmth and sensitivity. The composition is notably simpler than Lawrence's society portraits, focusing entirely on West's characterful face and the accumulated wisdom of a long artistic career.