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The image shows an engraved portrait of a man from the shoulders up, facing to the right. The man has short, curly white hair, a prominent nose, and a strong chin. He is wearing a dark coat with a high collar and a white cravat around his neck. The background is a simple dark circle. There are no visible pieces of jewelry or objects. Writing under the portrait credits someone in Philadelphia for the engraving or drawing, signed "Ben West."
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The image shows an engraved portrait of a man from the shoulders up, facing to the right. The man has short, curly white hair, a prominent nose, and a strong chin. He is wearing a dark coat with a high collar and a white cravat around his neck. The background is a simple dark circle. There are no visible pieces of jewelry or objects. Writing under the portrait credits someone in Philadelphia for the engraving or drawing, signed "Ben West."

National Gallery of Art · Print

Benjamin West

Charles B. J. Févret de Saint-Mémin

Date
1798
Medium
mezzotint and engraving in black on wove paper mounted to brown wove paper
Dimensions
image (irregular): 5.56 × 5.56 cm (2 3/16 × 2 3/16 in.) sheet (trimmed to plate): 6.67 × 6.19 cm (2 5/8 × 2 7/16 in.)
Classification
Print
Accession number
2015.19.1584.11.1
Credit line
Corcoran Collection (Gift of William Wilson Corcoran)
Time span
1776 to 1800
Department
CG-W
Original NGA record Wikidata

Portfolio and series

Series
Saint-Mémin Collection of Portraits

Subjects and terms

  • portrait
  • American
  • engraving
  • mezzotint
  • Man
  • Profile
Provenance

the artist, Dijon, France; Léon Victor Raoul Leclerc, Vicomte de Juigné (the artist's nephew), Dijon, France, 1852; (Henry Stevens, London, England, c. 1859); William W. Corcoran, Washington, DC, c. 1874; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1875; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art

Inscription

lower center in plate: Drawn & engrd. by St. Memin Philadela.; lower center mount in black ink by unknown hand: Ben West.

NGA object ID 214490. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.