were nevertheless verified, and the ‘Death of Wolfe’ was the most successful and the best of all West's pictures. Woollett's plate after this picture had the largest sale of any modern engraving [see Boydell, John]. The ‘Death of Wolfe’ was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1771, and was purchased by Lord Grosvenor. A copy of it is at Hampton Court. In the same exhibition West had seven other pictures of classical and biblical subjects, including ‘Hector and Andromache,’ painted for Dr. Newton, and the ‘Prodigal Son’ for the bishop of Worcester. The next year he produced another scene from modern American history, ‘William Penn's Treaty with the Indians’ (now at Philadelphia). In 1780 he exhibited two modern battle pieces, the ‘Battle of the Boyne’ and the ‘Destruction of the French Fleet at La Hogue.’ These pictures, all of which were engraved, greatly increased his popularity. He afterwards painted the ‘Death of Chevalier Bayard,’ the ‘Death of Nelson,’ ‘Treaty between Lord Cornwallis and Tippoo Sahib,’ ‘Oliver Cromwell dissolving Parliament,’ a few scenes from Spenser and Tasso, two for Boydell's ‘Shakespeare,’ and others from modern history and poetry. But such pictures were very few in comparison with his sacred and classical works. In 1774 he exhibited ‘The Angels appear to the Shepherds’ for the altar of a cathedral, and ‘Moses receiving the Tables’ (intended for St. Paul's Cathedral). He also painted altar-pieces for St. Stephen's, Walbrook, Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge, Greenwich Hospital Chapel, and other churches, and was regarded as the greatest historical painter of the English school. In 1792, at the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, he was elected president of the Royal Academy, a position he held till his death, with the exception of the short interregnum of James Wyatt [q. v.] The king offered him knighthood on his appointment, but he refused it on the ground that it would not add to the eminence he had gained by his pencil, but at the same time he gave a hint that he would accept a baronetcy. The hint was not taken, but the king's favour continued, and he went on painting his pictures for the chapel at Windsor till their progress was interrupted by the king's illness in 1801. Ill-natured attacks on account of the royal patronage now made him produce an account which showed that from 1768 to 1801 he had executed sixty-four pictures and other designs for the king, and had received for them 34,187l. On his recovery George III took him again under his protection, and allowed him 1,000l. a year. In 1803 or 1804 West went to Paris, and saw the great collection of works of art gathered in the Louvre by Bonaparte, of whom he was a great admirer. In 1804 he had a disagreement with the academy and resigned the presidency in December, but was re-elected early in 1805. About this time he endeavoured to form a national association for the encouragement of great works of art. He wrote an address to the king upon the subject, and received some assurance of ministerial assistance, which was never given. West had to abandon his scheme, but it was partly owing to his efforts that the British Institution was founded in 1805. In 1811 George III became permanently insane, and West's pension of 1,000l. a year was stopped without notice. He bore the loss without complaint, and went on painting with his usual regularity. He was now growing old, but his ambition and his belief in his own powers increased rather than diminished. He began to paint a series of scriptural subjects upon a large scale. The first of these was a picture of ‘Christ healing the Sick in the Temple,’ which was painted for the quakers of Philadelphia in aid of an hospital to be erected there. When exhibited in London it had a great success, and the British Institution offered West three thousand guineas for it. He accepted this offer on condition that he should make a copy of it for Philadelphia. The original was presented to the National Gallery by the British Institution in 1826, and has been engraved on a large scale by Charles Heath, and on a small scale for Jones's ‘National Gallery.’ The copy was exhibited in America, and a wing was added to the hospital out of the profits of the exhibition. To show his gratitude to the British Institution, West in 1815 had a medal struck, and presented one to each of the forty directors, of whom the prince regent was the president (see Annals of the Fine Arts, 1816 p. 259, and 1817 p. 281). These large pictures included the ‘Descent of the Holy Ghost on Christ at the Jordan’ (ten feet by fourteen); ‘The Crucifixion’ (sixteen feet by twenty-eight); and ‘The Ascension’ (twelve feet by eighteen). Perhaps the most ambitious and least successful of all was ‘Death on the Pale Horse’ (now in the Pennsylvanian Academy). The picture was exhibited at his own gallery in 1817. In this year, on 6 Dec., he lost his wife. His own strength now began gradually to fail. He suffered from gout and rheumatism, but it was of no specified complaint that he expired on 11 March 1820 at his house, 14 Newman Street, where he had lived for forty-five years. His body lay in state at the Royal Academy, and was buried with great honour in St. Paul's Cathedral. For some years
