CHAPTER XXVII.

ARTISTS AND FINE ARTS OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Benjamin West-Charles Wilson Peale - Rembrandt Peale-Thomas Sully - James Hamilton-Thomas Buchanan Read — Adolph Ulric WertmullerPaul Weber-John Neagle-Peter F. Rothermel― Margaret M. GeorgeThomas A. Scott-School of Design for Women- The Academy of Fine Arts.

IN

N her artists, Pennsylvania has been peculiarly fortunate. It is believed that not one of all her numerous sister States can vie with her in this respect. At the head of this class stands BENJAMIN WEST. Moses was exposed to death in the "ark of rushes; " Philip Doddridge was laid away for dead at his birth; John Wesley came near perishing when an infant in the conflagration of his father's house; and Benjamin West, by a premature birth. But Providence had a work for each of these to do.

Benjamin West was the youngest son of John West and Sarah Pearson. He was born the 10th of October, 1738, in Chester County, Pennsylvania. His parents were Quakers. Everybody knows that it is as unnatural for a Quaker to encourage the fine arts, or painting at least, as it is for one of this denomination to sing ; and, in the early days of Quakerism, it would have been as unnatural to hear a Quaker sing as to see a mole above ground.

The first effort of West, showing the natural bent of his talent, is related by one of his biographers in the following language: "In the month of June, 1745, one of his sisters, who had been married some time before, and who had a daughter, came with her infant to spend a few days at her father's. When the child was asleep in the cradle, Mrs. West invited her

daughter to gather flowers in the garden, and committed the infant to the care of Benjamin during their absence, giving him a fan to flap away the flies from molesting his little charge. After some time, the child happened to smile in its sleep; and its beauty attracted his attention. He looked at it with a pleasure which he had never before experienced; and observing some paper on a table, together with pens, and red and black ink, he seized them with agitation, and endeavored to delineate a portrait, although at this period he had never seen an engraving or a picture, and was only in the seventh year of his age.'

Hearing the return of his mother and sister, he attempted to conceal what he had done; but, as he appeared confused, the old lady inquired what he was about, and requested him to show her the paper. He did so, and asked her not to be angry. She looked at the picture for some time, and then said to her daughter, with evident pleasure, "I declare, he has made a likeness of little Sally!" and kissed him. Thus encouraged, he told her, if it would please her, he would make pictures of the flowers she held in her hand.

As above said, the Quakers had seen so much tinsel and false glare among the Catholics and Episcopalians in England, that they wished to cut loose from every thing that had the least appearance of patronizing what they considered the works of the world, if not the works of the Devil. They had about the same objection to paintings, that the Puritanic Society of Weymouth had to lawyers, whom they considered at least "a useless and unnecessary class," if not worse, and hence objected to the daughter of their minister, Parson Smith, marrying John Adams, because he was a lawyer. From the antipathy of the Quakers to every thing of the nature of art, no place on earth seemed more unlikely to produce an artist than Pennsylvania.

At the first school young West attended, he was allowed to draw with pen and ink. A party of Indians came to pay their annual visit to the place of his school, and, being pleased with the sketches of the birds and flowers that the boy showed them, they taught him to prepare the red and yellow colors by which they painted their ornaments. His mother gave him a piece of indigo for blue; and thus he possessed the three primary colors.

His drawings attracted the attention of his neighbors; and some of them expressed regret that he had no pencils, whereupon he inquired what kind of things those were. He was told they were small brushes, made of camel's hair fastened in a quill. Here the little artist was in a dilemma. There were no camels in America, and what could he do? As "necessity is the mother of invention," he noticed that the tail of his father's black cat would furnish him with what he wanted: so he cut off the fur, carefully preserving her tail. With this he made a brush; but it was soon worn out, and another must be had. So the black cat came into requisition again. But this time the fur was cut from her back. This was soon noticed by the father, who, supposing that the cat was diseased, was about to prescribe a remedy, when little Ben, who, like little George Washington and his hatchet, would not lie, or allow his father to be deceived, frankly confessed what he had done. Seeing his contrition, and pleased with the tact of the little son, the Quaker father readily forgave him. Those who remember the many anecdotes told us by Xenophon, of the little Cyrus when a boy, and see how they paved the way for Cyrus the great general and king, may treasure up this story of the black cat, and call it to mind when they find Benjamin West as he appears hereafter.

Soon after this event, a Mr. Pennington, a merchant from Philadelphia, and a relative of the West family, visited Mr. West. Being also a Quaker, he was not a little surprised to see little pictures all about the house, a new thing under the sun to be found in the house of a Quaker. But, when told that these were the work of little Benjamin, his surprise gave place to admiration of the boy who could make such beautiful drawings. He thought them wonderful productions; and, on being informed of the scanty and imperfect materials by which they were produced, his admiration grew to wonder and astonishment. He promised to send the little artist a box of paints and pencils, and, on his return home, fulfilled his promise.

The arrival of this box and its contents was an epoch in the life of the young artist. Upon opening the box, he discovered