WEST, BENJAMIN, the youngest son of John and Sarah West, was born in the township of Spring field, in the county of Delaware, then a part of Chester county, Pennsylvania, on the 10th of Octo ber 1733.
The West family emigrated from England with William Penn on his second visit to Pennsylvania about the year 1699. They had joined in religious fellowship with the society of Friends about twenty years previous to their emigration; and it is probable that their inducements to leave their native land was the hope of enjoying, under the mild and paternal administration of William Penn, that perfect toleration in the enjoyment and exer cise of their faith, which was denied them in the country of their birth. John West, the father of Benjamin, married Sarah, the daughter of Thomas Pearson, about the year 1714, by w hom he had ten children. The farm on which the artist was born was originally settled by his maternal grandfather, and called Springfield, in consequence of a large spring of water which rose in the first field that was cleared for cultivation. From this circumstance the township afterwards received the name of Springfield.
West exhibited, even in his childhood, the germs of those great talents for painting, which secured for him, in the maturity of manhood, the patronage ' of princes, and the admiration of the lovers of the fine-arts. It is a question which has been a fruitful theme for controversy among speculative philosophers, whether the particular bent and direction of genius was the work of nature, or the result of habit and early associations. Without presuming to pronounce a decisive judgment on this point, it may be observed that the early history of the youthful artist who is the subject of this no tice, must be admitted at least to strengthen the argument in favour of native talent for particular pursuits. His first essay at the art in which he afterwards became so celebrated, appears to have been made in his seventh year. Being left in charge of a child who was sleeping in the cradle, while his mother and a near relation took a walk in the garden to gather flowers, which were then in full bloom, his attention was particularly arrested by the sweet smile of the -sleeping infant.
By his own account, his imagination was awak ened, and he felt an emotion such as he had never before experienced. He instinctively seized some paper, pens and ink, which he observed on a table, and endeavoured to delineate her portrait. When his mother returned, he manifested some anxiety lest she should be offended at what he had done. But after viewing for sometime this first spe cimen of the genius of her son, she was so far from being displeased, that she showed the pleasure she felt by carresses. This encouraged him so much that he immediately offered to draw the likeness of the flowers which she held in her hand. When the drawing of the sleeping infant was shown to his father, he acknowledged it to be a good likeness, and was not less pleased than his mother had been at this early indication of talent in his little son. When it is considered that he was then not seven years old, that he had never seen a picture or draw ing of any kind, nor heard of the art of portrait painting, we cannot withhold our admiration of the strength of that instinct of nature which prompted him, at so early a period, to imitate the powers that excited sensations of pleasure in his mind.
From this time he seems to have possessed a consciousness of his powers. He felt that he could imitate whatever gratified his eye or pleased his fancy. His first essays were necessarily rude and imperfect. His materials were but illy suited to his genius. The first colours he used were char coal and chalk, mixed with the juice of berries; and his first imitation of a pencil was made of the fur of a cat, drawn tightly through a goose quill. With such implements of his art as these, when about nine years old, he drew on a sheet of paper the portraits of a neighbouring family, in which the delineation of each individual was sufficiently accurate to be immediately recognised by his fa ther when the picture was first shown to him. When about twelve years old he drew a portrait of him self, with his hair hanging loosely about his shoul ders.