Main Building
This exhibition consisted of 37 paintings and 50 drawings assembled from public and private collections in Pennsylvania in celebration of the publication by Yale University Press of the catalog Paintings of Benjamin West, by Helmut von Erffa and Allen Staley. This survey of the career of Benjamin West (1738-1820), the first American artist to win international acclaim, included two of the earliest known portraits by West, painted in his native Pennsylvania, a version of his first historical commission in England, and one of his best-known history paintings, William Penn's Treaty with the Indians. The exhibit was organized by Darrel L. Sewell, the Robert L. McNeil Curator of American Art, Joseph J. Rishel, and Ann Percy, Curator of Drawings. It was supported by a grant from The Pew Memorial Trust. A scholarly symposium was supported by The Barra Foundaiton.