LOT DETAILS

Materials:

oil on canvas

Measurements:

65.00 in. (165.10 cm.) (height) by 96.00 in. (243.84 cm.) (width)

Markings:

signed and dated on the stern of Admiral Rooke's boat 'B. West 1778. Retouched 1806'

Exhibited:

West's Gallery, London, 1785-1829, Great Room, no. 69; London, Royal Academy of Arts, Winter 1888, no. 154 (lent by Monckton); New York, James Graham and Sons, Benjamin West, 1962, no. 5; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Three Centuries of American Painting, 1965; New York, Bronx Council on the Arts, Paintings from the Metropolitan, 1971, no. 1.

Literature:

J. Trumbull, account book, in entries for 1784 and 1813, details his work on the painting, printed in T. Sizer, Yale University Library Gazette 22, 1948, pp. 121-122; J. Farington, Diary kept from July 13 1793-December 30, 1821, entries on May 11 and July 8, 1806, in The Farington Diary, ed. by J. Greig, 1924, pp. 227, 272; "A Correct Catalogue of the Works of Benjamin West, Esq.," Port Folio 6, 1811, p. 548, lists "the second picture of the Battle of La Hogue, with alterations" among the "pictures painted by Mr. West for his own Collection"; J. Galt, The Life, Studies and Works of Benjamin West (1816-1820), 2, p. 220, lists a painting of this subject; p. 225, lists the "first and second pictures of the Battle of La Hogue"; C. Smart, West's Gallery, 1823, p. 17, no. 69, lists a painting of this subject, probably this picture, handing in the Great Room; "Letter from the Sons of Benjamin West...Offering to Sell to the Government of the United States Sundry Paintings of that Artist," December 11, 1826, House Documents, 19th Congr., 2d Sess., Doc. No. 8, p. 5, no. 8 lists it; W. Dunlap, History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States, 1834, I, p. 65, says that when West was painting the picture, "an admiral took him to Spithead, and to give him a lesson on he effect of smoke in a naval engagement, ordered several ships of the fleet to manoeuvre as in action, and fire broadsides, while the painter made notes;" pp. 88-90, says he has, "heard [it] praised as the best historic picture of the British school" and notes that a print after Langendyk probably follows West's composition and not vice versa; p. 103, notes that the picture sold in 1829 must have been a copy; J. Trumbull, Autobiography, 1841, p. 92; L. Fagan, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Engraved Works of William Woollett, 1885, pp. 52-53, lists eight states of Woollett's engraving after the original as well as copies by Klauber and Voysard; J. Trumbull, The Autobiography of Colonel John Trumbull: Patriot-Artist, New Haven 1953, p. 87; A. Gardner and S. Feld, American Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: I Painters born by 1815, New York 1954, pp. 29-32; A. T. Gardner, MMA Bulletin 24, March 1966, pp. 229, 236; H. von Erffa, American Art Journal I, Spring 1969, p. 28, says the composition is "based on a painting by Langendyk"; A. Lehman, "Benjamin West's Battle of La Hogue," 1971, unpublished MS in Department Archives, emphasizes the political context of the painting and says that West's representation of the events of different days in one canvas is in accord with academic tenets of history painting; notes that a print by Dirk Langendyk postdates West's picture and appears to rely on an engraving of it; I. Jaffe, John Trumbull: Patriot-Artist of the American Revolution, Boston 1975, pp. 70, 316, fig. 44, considers it a copy by Trumbull; The Diary of Joseph Farington, New Haven and London 1982, ed. Kathryn Cave, vol VII, p. 2757; H. von Erffa and A. Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West, New Haven & London 1986, p. 102, p. 210, cat. no. 91; J. Caldwell and O. Rodriguez Roque, American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born by 1815, vol. I, 1994, pp. 69-73.

Provenance:

Offered by West to the Pennsylvania Academy in 1809; Offered by his sons Raphael and Benjamin, to the United States in 1826; By whom sold, London, George Robins, May 22-25, 1829, lot 101 bt. by Monckton; Hon. John Monckton, London, and Fineshade Abbey, Stamford; Edward P. Monckton, Fineshade Abbey, Northants., by 1888; Thence by descent to Edward Philip Monckton, Fineshade Abbey, Thece by descent to his son, George Edward Monckton, Fineshade Abbey; By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, February 10, 1921, lot 3; With Sutton; With Sigmund Samuel, Toronto by 1952; Leslie W. Lewis, Toronto; Will Bradley Chapoton, Leamington, Ontario, by 1952-58; With Bernard Feldman, Philadelphia; With Victor D. Spark, New York: With James Graham and Sons, New York, 1958-64; Purchased by the Metropolitan Museum in 1964 (Harris Brisbane Dick Fund).