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Creator:
Benjamin West, 1738–1820
Title:
The Death of Chatham
Former Title(s):
The Death of the Earl of Chatham
Date:
1778
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
28 1/8 x 36 1/4 inches (71.4 x 92.1 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund, in honor of Professor Jules David Prown
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B2009.10
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B2009.10FR
Subject Terms:
costume | death | groups, social | handkerchief | historical subject | men | robes | royalty | scepter | spectators | staff (walking stick) | wigs
Associated Places:
England | Europe | Kent | United Kingdom
Associated People:
Pitt, William, the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708 - 1778), Secretary of State, Prime Minister
Access:
Not on view
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:60922
Export:
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IIIF Manifest:
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In 1778, the elderly Earl of Chatham spoke in the House of Lords denouncing those who would surrender the thirteen American colonies and accept their Declaration of Independence. Chatham had steered Britain to a resounding victory in the recent Seven Years’ War (1757–63) and was regarded as the architect of the nation’s new imperial prestige. He refused to contemplate severing the American colonies from Britain and see them become allied to France. Chatham’s collapse after speaking and subsequent death was almost symbolic of Britain’s own distress. This is Benjamin West’s detailed modello, when he toyed with the idea of a major painting to represent this dramatic moment in British colonial history. He ultimately abandoned the project and handed it to a fellow American, John Singleton Copley. West perhaps found the subject too awkward because he was balancing his own support of American Independence with a close friendship with George III.

Gallery label for A Decade of Gifts and Acquisitions (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-06-01 - 2017-08-13)


In 1778, the elderly Earl of Chatham spoke in the House of Lords denouncing those who would surrender the thirteen American colonies and accept their Declaration of Independence. Chatham had steered Britain to a resounding victory in the recent Seven Years’ War (1756–63) and was regarded as the architect of the nation’s new imperial prestige. He refused to contemplate severing the American colonies from Britain and see them become allied to France. Chatham’s collapse after speaking and subsequent death was almost symbolic of Britain’s own distress. This is Benjamin West’s detailed modello, when he toyed with the idea of a major painting to represent this dramatic moment in British colonial history. He ultimately abandoned the project and handed it to a fellow American, John Singleton Copley. West perhaps found the subject too awkward because he was balancing his own support of American independence with a close friendship with George III.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

A Correct List of the Works of Mr. West, Universal Magazine, vol. 3, June 1805, p. 531, British Periodicals [ORBIS]

Ann Uhry Abrams, The Valiant Hero : Benjamin West and Grand-Style History Painting, , Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1985, pp. 189-91, fig. 119, NJ18 .W52 A27 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Robert C. Alberts, Benjamin West : A Biography, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1978, p. 157, NJ18 W52 A6 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Joel Barlow, The Columbiad : A Poem, , R. Philips, Philadelphia, 1809, p. 435, Za B249 807Cb (BRBL) [ORBIS]

Benjamin West : American Painter at the English Court, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 1989, pp. 56-57, no. 27, NJ18 W52 S72 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Lance Bertelsen, Richmond's Rhetoric and Chatham's Collapse : A Media History, Eighteenth Century Life, vol. 36, Fall 2012, pp. 20-22, 29n39, fig. 2, available online via Project MUSE [ORBIS]

John Dillenberger, Benjamin West : The Context of his Life's Work, with Particular Attention to Paintings with Religious Subject Matter, Including a Correlated Version of Early Nineteenth-Century Lists of West's Paintings, Exhibitions, and Sales Records of his Works..., , Trinity University Press, San Antonio, 1977, p. 180, no. 414, NJ18 W52 +D55 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Michael E. Duffy, West's "Agrippina, Wolfe" and the Expression of Restraint, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, vol. 58, 1995, p. 222, available online via JSTOR [ORBIS]

James Thomas Flexner, America's Old Masters: First Artists of the New World, Viking Press, New York, 1939, p. 154, ND207 F54 (LSF) [ORBIS]

James Thomas Flexner, John Singleton Copley, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1948, p. 88, J18 c75 +948F Oversize (LSF) [ORBIS]

Alfred V. Frankenstein, The World of Copley, 1738-1815, Time-Life Books, New York, 1970, p. 139, NJ18 C75 +F73 Oversize (HAAS) [ORBIS]

John Galt, The Life of Benjamin West (1816-1820), Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, Gainesville, FL, 1960, p. 231, NJ18 W.52 G.35 1960A (YCBA) [YCBA]

Algernon Graves, Art Sales from Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century (Mostly Old Masters and Early English Pictures), 3 v., Algernon Graves, London, 1918-1921, vol. 3, p. 329, Lot 71, N8675 +G72 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., A Gallery Collects , October 19 - November 19, 1977, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, 1977, no. 6, 715 H61 977 (Lewis Walpole Library) [ORBIS]

In Pursuit of Quality, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX, 1987, p. 243, N570.8 +A85 1987 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ruth S. Kraemer, Drawings by Benjamin West and His Son, Raphael Lamar West, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1975, pp. 14-15, NJ18 W52 +K73 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Sophie von La Roche, Sophie in London 1786 : Being the Diary of Sophie v. la Roche, London, 1933, p. 153, DA 682 L2 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Ellen Gross Miles, American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1995, pp. 74-75, ND207 N28 1995 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Edmund Pillsbury, Recent Painting Acquisitions : The Kimbell Art Museum, Burlington Magazine, Vol. 124,no.946, January 1982, supplement pp. v-vi, fig. 8, N1 +B87 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

J. H. Plumb, Men and Places, Cresset Press, London, 1963, pp. 107-11, 63 963 P73 (Walpole) [ORBIS]

Jules D. Prown, Art as Evidence : Writings on Art and Material Culture, , Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2001, pp. 168-170, fig. 9.10, N6507 P745 2001 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Jules D. Prown, Benjamin West and the Use of Antiquity, American Art Journal, vol. 10, Summer 1996, pp. 44, 46, N6505 S655 (HAAS) Also available online at JSTOR [ORBIS]

Jules D. Prown, John Singleton Copley ..., 1, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, pp. 280-281 (v.2), , NJ18 C75 +P76 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

George Redford, Art Sales : A History of Sales of Pictures and Other Works of Art., With notices of the collections sold, names of owners, titles of pictures, prices and purchasers, arranged under the artists of the different schools in order of date. Including the purchases and prices of pictures for the National Gallery... , 2 v., Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., London, 1888, vol. 1, p. 119, N8675 +R44 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

George Henry Robins, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Unequalled Collection of Historical Pictures, and Other Admired Compositions, the Works of the Revered and Highly-Gifted Painter, the Late Benjamin West, Esq., President of the Royal Academy, , Beaufort House, London, 1829, p. 23, lot 71, V2181 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Robert Rosenblum, 19th-Century Art, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2005, pp. 18-19, fig. 5, N6425 N4 +R67 2005 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Simon Schama, Dead Certainties : Unwarranted Speculations, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1991, p. 36, F73.25 S33 1991 (Bass) [ORBIS]

George T. M. Shackelford, Masterpieces of Baroque Painting from the Collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, 1992, pp. 81-82, fig. 9, ND177 +SSX 1992 Oversize (HAAS) [ORBIS]

Allen Staley, Benjamin West, Raphael West and the Floating Batteries, Burlington Magazine, vol. 155, no. 1321, April 2013, p. 245n.15, N1 +B87 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Masayuki Tanaka, American Heroism, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2001, pp. 18, 107-108, no. 2, ND210 +A535 2001 Oversize (LSF) [ORBIS]

The 'Vasari' Diary, ARTnews, vol. 76, October 1977, pp. 19-20, N1 +A6 Oversize (HAAS) [ORBIS]

The Amon Carter Museum, Celebrating America : Masterworks from Texas Collections, The Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX, 2002, pp. 30-31, N 6505 C42 2002 (LSF) [ORBIS]

The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, from Which Last-Mentioned Epoch it is Continued Downwards in the Work Entitled "Hansard's Parliamentary Debates.", T. C. Hansard, London, 1806-1820, pp. 1012-31 (v.19), O7301 H2 C6 (LSF) [ORBIS]

Trafalgar Galleries, Trafalgar Galleries at the Royal Academy, Trafalgar Galleries, London, 1977, p. 69, fig. O, N5054 +C63 1977 Oversize (LSF) [ORBIS]

Helmut von Erffa, Benjamin West at the Height of His Career, American Art Journal, vol. 1, Spring 1969, pp. 22-23, JSTOR [ORBIS]

Helmut von Erffa, The Paintings of Benjamin West, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1986, pp. 65, 218, no. 104, NJ18 W52 A12 +E73 Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Horace Walpole, Book of Materials, 1759, 1771, 1786, p. 113 (v.3), 49 2615 (Lewis Walpole Library) [ORBIS]

William Thomas Whitley, Artists and Their Friends in England, 1700-1799, B. Blom, New York, 1968, pp. 355-356 (v.1), N6766 W45 1968 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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