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Lot Essay
Benjamin West arrived in England in 1763 and quickly made a name for himself as one of the most successful history painters of his generation. Dubbed the ‘American Raphael’ by his contemporaries, West’s portrayal of The Death of General Wolfe in 1770 marked a landmark moment in his career, and would become one of the most reproduced images of the late 18th century. His success as a history painter soon gained him the attention of significant patrons, not least King George III, who appointed him historical painter to the Court in 1772, and commissioned from him a series of eight large canvases of the life of Edward III and a proposed cycle of thirty-six paintings, representing ‘the progress of revealed religion’ for a chapel at Windsor Castle (though only twenty-eight were actually completed).
Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven dates to this highly significant period in West’s career. It is the earliest of several compositions by the artist, which depict Christ presenting a young child as the emblem of Heaven. The subject derives from Matthew (19:14), ‘Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.’ West would return to it in circa 1790 when he began a monumental canvas for the publisher Thomas Macklin, later donated to the Foundling Hospital in London in 1801 (London, Foundling Museum, inv. no. FM61). In 1790 and 1794, he painted two smaller versions of this picture (both Private collections, ibid., nos. 326 and 327), the latter of which also belonged to Macklin, and served as the model for John Hall’s 1795 engraving of the subject, later published in Macklin’s Illustrated Bible. A final version of the subject was painted in 1810 (Private collection, formerly with Trafalgar Galleries, London; H. von Erffa and A. Stanley, op.cit., no. 328). While his initial treatment limited the composition to only two characters, West’s subsequent canvases all included additional figures, though he retained the central motif of Christ pointing toward Heaven while presenting a small child.
West’s composition is believed to have derived from Sir Joshua Reynold’s Count Ugolino and his Children in the Dungeon, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1773 (fig. 1; Knole House, Kent, inv. no. NT 129934). This large history painting was the object of considerable critical interest at the time of its exhibition. Reynolds himself wrote to Lord Grantham, the British ambassador to Madrid, that it ‘got me more credit than any [painting] I ever did before’ (M. Postle, in D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, New Haven and London, 2000, p. 569). West seemingly emulated the strong chiaroscuro across the face of Reynolds’ Ugolino and direct illumination of his son in his figures of Christ and the child.
Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven dates to this highly significant period in West’s career. It is the earliest of several compositions by the artist, which depict Christ presenting a young child as the emblem of Heaven. The subject derives from Matthew (19:14), ‘Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.’ West would return to it in circa 1790 when he began a monumental canvas for the publisher Thomas Macklin, later donated to the Foundling Hospital in London in 1801 (London, Foundling Museum, inv. no. FM61). In 1790 and 1794, he painted two smaller versions of this picture (both Private collections, ibid., nos. 326 and 327), the latter of which also belonged to Macklin, and served as the model for John Hall’s 1795 engraving of the subject, later published in Macklin’s Illustrated Bible. A final version of the subject was painted in 1810 (Private collection, formerly with Trafalgar Galleries, London; H. von Erffa and A. Stanley, op.cit., no. 328). While his initial treatment limited the composition to only two characters, West’s subsequent canvases all included additional figures, though he retained the central motif of Christ pointing toward Heaven while presenting a small child.
West’s composition is believed to have derived from Sir Joshua Reynold’s Count Ugolino and his Children in the Dungeon, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1773 (fig. 1; Knole House, Kent, inv. no. NT 129934). This large history painting was the object of considerable critical interest at the time of its exhibition. Reynolds himself wrote to Lord Grantham, the British ambassador to Madrid, that it ‘got me more credit than any [painting] I ever did before’ (M. Postle, in D. Mannings, Sir Joshua Reynolds: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, New Haven and London, 2000, p. 569). West seemingly emulated the strong chiaroscuro across the face of Reynolds’ Ugolino and direct illumination of his son in his figures of Christ and the child.