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WEST, GILBERT; 



WESTMACOTT, SIR RICHARD. 



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president of the Royal Academy, he imitated the example of Sir 

 Joshua Reynold*, and read discourses to the students at the distribu- 

 tions of prizes. As literary compositions these discourses are far 

 from remarkable, and thef are chiefly distinguished for their simplicity 

 and common sense. The British Institution arose out of a favourite 

 plan of West's, which failed, to establish a national association for 

 the encouragement of works of high art. There is a full-length 

 portrait of West, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, in the National Gallery. 



WEST, GILBERT, was the son of the Reverend Dr. West, by whom 

 an edition of Pindar was published at Oxford in 1697, and who died 

 in 1716 : his mother was Mary, the eldest of the three sisters of Sir 

 Richard Temple, afterwards Lord Cobham ; the second of whom, 

 marrying Mr. Richard Grenville, succeeded her brother as Viscountess 

 Cobham, and was afterwards created Countess Temple ; and the 

 third of whom married Sir Thomas Lyttelton, father of the first Lord 

 Lyttelton. West is supposed to have been born about 1705. It 

 was intended by his father that he should go into the Church ; and 

 with that view he was first sent to Eton and afterwards to Oxford ; 

 but, obtaining a commission through the interest of his uncle, Lord 

 Cobhnm, he was induced to make the army his profession. It is sup- 

 posed however that his tastes did not well accord with a military life, 

 and he after some time resigned his commission and " engaged," says 

 Dr. Johnson, " in business under the Lord Townshend, then secretary 

 of state, with whom he attended the king to Hanover." This must 

 have been in 1721, when Townshend, in his second secretaryship, went 

 to Hanover with George I., and the struggle for pre-eminence com- 

 menced between him and his colleague Carteret, which ended, three 

 years after, in the removal of the latter. West probably continued to 

 act as secretary or in some cuch capacity, to Townshend till the 

 resignation of that minister, in May 1730. Johnson states that in May 

 1729, his patron rewarded him with a nomination to be clerk extra- 

 ordinary to the privy council, which however produced him no imme- 

 diate profit. But he seems to have had some resources, for we are 

 told that soon after this he married and settled in a very pleasant 

 house at Wickhain, in Kent, " where he devoted himself to learning 

 and to piety," and where he was often visited by his relations, the first 

 Lord Lyttelton and the elder Pitt. It is said that the education of 

 the young Prince George of Wales (afterwards George III.) was once 

 offered to him, " but that he required a more extensive power of 

 superintendence than it was thought proper to allow him." It was 

 not till 1752 that he reaped the benefit of Townshend's nomination, 

 by succeeding to one of the clerkships of the privy council ; and soon 

 after his friend Pitt, now in office, made him treasurer of Chelsea 

 Hospital. But he did not long enjoy this increase of income ; in 1755 

 he lost his only son; and on the 20th of March 1756, he was himself 

 carried off by a stroke of palsy. 



Gilbert West is the author of several poetical productions, of which 

 his versions of some of the Odes of Pindar, first published in 4to, in 

 1749, are the best known, or rather attracted most notice in his own 

 day, for the work is now nearly forgotten. It has little merit, except 

 some elegance or smoothness of versification. The publication is 

 entitled ' Odes of Pindar, with several other Pieces in prose and verse, 

 translated from the Greek;' the two most important of the other 

 translations are one of the ' Iphigenia in Tauris,' from Euripides, and 

 one of Plato's ' Menexenus.' There is also an elaborate ' Dissertation 

 on the Olympick Games.' West's literary reputation principally rests 

 on his ' Observations on the Resurrection,' first published in 1730, and 

 since often reprinted. This tract, for which the University of Oxford, 

 in March 1748, made the author a Doctor of Laws by diploma, used to 

 rank as one of the ablest examinations in English theological literature 

 of a particular point in the evidences of Christianity, forming a com- 

 panion to Lord Lyttelton's 'Dissertation on the Conversion of St. 

 Paul,' which is addressed to West, and was written in consequence of 

 the convictions which West's conversation was the means of suggesting 

 or impressing. Both West and Lyttelton had at one time adopted 

 infidel principles, and " when West's book was published," Dr. Johnson 

 tells us, "it was bought by some who did not know his change of 

 opinion, in expectation of new objections against Christianity." 



WESTALL, RICHARD, R.A., was born at Hertford in 1765. In 

 1779 he was apprenticed to Mr. Thompson, an engravei-, in the city, of 

 heraldry on silver, but his superior abilities having been perceived by 

 Mr. Alefounder, a miniature painter, he was recommended by that 

 gentleman to study drawing, and make painting his profession. He 

 accordingly obtained leave from his master in the last year of his 

 apprenticeship to draw in the evenings at the Royal Academy, and in 

 1786 he was at liberty to follow the bent of his own inclination. He 

 took, jointly with his friend Sir Thomas (then Mr.) Lawrence, a house 

 in Soho-square, in the corner of Greek-street, which they held together 

 for some time. 



Westall's first performances which attracted the notice of the public 

 were some highly finished historical pieces in water-colours, in which 

 he was without a rival: of these the following were particularly 

 admired: Sappho in the Lesbian Shades, chanting the Hymn of 

 Love; Jubal, the first voice of the Lyre; the Boar that killed Adonis 

 brought to Venus ; the Storm in Harvest ; the Marriage Procession 

 (from the Shield of Achilles) ; besides many others. He made also a 

 series of graceful designs to illustrate Milton, for Alderman Boydell ; 

 and he was a contributor to the ' Boydell Shakspere.' He painted at 



the same time several large historical pictures, but he met with so little 

 success in the disposal of them, that he was almost compelled to con- 

 fine himself to making small designs for booksellers, and in the number 

 and popularity of his designs of this class he was second only to 

 Stothard. They added however little to his reputation, for, owing 

 probably to the great number required of him, he fell into a peculiar 

 and decided mannerism. Among many other works, he illustrated 

 Crabbe's ' Poems,' and Moore's * Loves of the Angels.' Westall was 

 elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1794, the same year in 

 which Sir Thomas Lawrence and Stothard were elected. In 1808 he 

 published a book of poems illustrated by himself. Towards the close 

 of his life he became very much embarrassed in his means, owing to 

 some unsuccessful speculations in foreign pictures and some imprudent 

 partnership engagements. His last occupation was giving lessons in 

 drawing and painting to her present majesty while Princess Victoria. 

 He died on the 4th of December 1836. 



WESTALL, WILLIAM, A.R.A., younger brother of the above, was 

 born at Hertford, October 12, 1781. He studied at first under his 

 brother, and subsequently at the Royal Academy. Here however his 

 studies were interrupted, by his appointment, in 1801, on the recom- 

 mendation of the President, West, to accompany Captain Flinders in 

 the Investigator as a draftsman on his voyage of discovery. Wesfrill 

 was with Flinders for two years, when, the Investigator having been 

 abandoned, he was transferred to the companion ship, the Porpoise, in 

 which he was wrecked on a coral reef on the north coast of Australia 

 on his voyage home. The ship which picked up Westall and his com- 

 panions was bound to China, and he remained some months in that 

 country, when he secured a passage to India. Here he also remained 

 some time, making a journey into the interior and occupying him el!, 

 as elsewhere, in sketching the more striking scenery and objects. 

 Not. finding, on his return to England, .employment as readily as ho 

 anticipated, he made a voyage to Madeira and the West India Islands ; 

 aud on his return opened, in 1808, an exhibition of the large collection 

 of water-colour drawings and sketches he had made of the various 

 countries he had visited : it proved however an unsuccessful specula- 

 tion. Captain Flinders returned to England in 1810, and Westall was 

 directed by the government to prepare his sketches for engraving to 

 illustrate the account of the voyage ; he was also commissioned to paint 

 several views of the coasts and interior of Australia. Of these he 

 exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1812, his views of 'Port Boweu, 

 and 'Seaforth's Isle in the Gulf of Carpentaria;' and the striking 

 character of the scenery, aud the rich and novel herbage, which he had 

 depicted with the fidelity of a botanist, rendered them very attractive. 

 They secured his election as Associate of the Royal Academy in the 

 same year : he had for some time previously been a member of the 

 Society of Painters in Water-Colours. Unfortunately perhaps for his 

 reputation, be did not steadily follow up the path he had thus opened. 

 He turned his attention to making drawings for engraving, in which 

 he for many years found ample and profitable employment, but he 

 thus contracted a neatness and prettiness of style which proved 

 destructive of all grandeur of effect when applied in his paintings. 

 Among hi* best known series of engraved designs are his views of the 

 lakes of Westmoreland and Cumberland, which are drawn with great 

 fidelity, though with some deficiency of power : he was a frequent 

 visitor to this district, where he enjoyed the warm friendship of 

 Southey and Wordsworth by both of whom he was greatly esteemed. 

 He also drew and engraved in aquatint a series of views of the Cave?, 

 and of the Abbeys and other Monastic Ruins of Yorkshire, of the Isle of 

 Wight, Oxford, Cambridge, the Residences of the Poets, &c. His con- 

 tributions of oil paintings to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy 

 were comparatively few, and in his later years they became fewer than 

 they might else have been, from finding himself in reality excluded 

 from the full honours of that institution. Mr. Westall met with a 

 severe accident, in 1847, by which his left arm was broken, and he 

 received some internal injuries, and from the effects of which he never 

 wholly recovered. He died January 22, 1850. 



WESTMACOTT, SIR RICHARD, R.A., was bom iu London in 

 1775. His father was a sculptor of some eminence in hia day, aud in 

 his studio (Mount-street, Grosvenor-square,) the young Westrnacott 

 learned the use of the chisel. In 1793 he went to Rome, where he 

 had the benefit of instruction from Canova. His career as a student 

 in Italy was a distinguished one. He carried oif the first prize in 

 sculpture at the Academy of Florence, in 1794 ; aud in 1795 the medal 

 given by the pope. He was elected a member of the Academy of 

 Florence in 1795. After a somewhat prolonged stay in Italy, he 

 returned to London, and was soon recognised as one of the best of the 

 young sculptors of the day ; and his future career was on the whole a 

 very prosperous one. His imaginative works were of an exceedingly 

 graceful, chaste, and poetic character, classic in feeling, and in execu- 

 tion resembling that of the modern Italian school; several of these 

 will retain their place among the best poetic works of the English 

 school of sculpture. The most popular is his very pleasing statue of 

 'Psyche,' executed for the Duke of Bedford, and now, with a com- 

 panion 'Cupid,' at Woburn. Among the bast known of his other 

 poetic works are the ' Euphrosyne,' executed for the Duke of New- 

 castle; an exquisite figure of 'A Nymph unclasping her Zone,' the 

 property of the Earl of Carlisle ; ' The Distressed Mother,' executed 

 for the Marquis of Lansdowne; 'The Homeless Wanderer ;' 'Devo- 



