Benjamin West, Death of General Wolfe, 1770
oil on canvas, 5'x7' National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, British History Painting
Take Benjamin West as an example. He was born in America but
worked in England and had patrons there. While it might be tempting to just
call him an English painter, it’s more accurate to describe him as an American
artist working under English patronage. His work often focused on English
subjects, and one of the genres he worked in was called history painting.
That term doesn’t mean it's about ancient history necessarily—it’s more like a
staged scene of current or recent events. You can think of it kind of like a
news photo that’s been retouched or set up for dramatic effect.
Looking at one of West’s well-known paintings, it helps to
focus on how it’s built up visually. The arrangement of figures is sort of flat
across the front, like a frieze—a design style that goes back to things
like the Ara Pacis Augustae in Rome or the Panathenaic procession
in ancient Greece. The figures are pushed toward the front of the painting,
almost like a shallow relief sculpture. They’re posed with these exaggerated
gestures meant to show emotion, but also a bit theatrical, almost like they’re
posing or voguing for the viewer.
Behind them, there’s another set of figures in the background
that are less clear. These are shown with sfumato or atmospheric
perspective, where the haze makes things look more distant. As you look further
back, the smoke and clouds blur the details even more, adding depth and mood to
the scene.
The lighting in the painting helps shape the bodies. There’s
a clear light source coming from the left, casting shadows, and creating a
sense of volume through techniques known as chiaroscuro and tenebrism.
These are terms for how light and shadow are used to model the figures, making
them look three-dimensional. The brightest part of the light falls on a wounded
figure in the middle, drawing your eye there. What makes that even more
noticeable is the diagonal line running through the painting, created by a flag
and the shapes of the clouds. That diagonal helps guide your eye and adds
energy to the scene.
A lot of what West is doing here comes from what he learned
from earlier artists like Caravaggio and Velázquez. He’s borrowing techniques
like dramatic lighting and strong composition to heighten the storytelling.
These were tools used in Baroque painting, and West is applying them to a
modern historical subject, blending old methods with recent events.
One way to look at Benjamin West’s painting The Death of
General Wolfe is by focusing on the iconography, which basically
means the use of symbols and visual elements that carry meaning. This painting
doesn’t just tell a story through how it looks—it also connects to historical
context and some ideas that were going around in the 1700s.
During the 18th century, there were ongoing struggles between
European powers over land in the Americas. England and France were especially
active in trying to claim territory because they saw the Americas as a source
of valuable natural resources. Controlling these resources was seen as a way to
strengthen their economies, especially during the early phases of industrialization.
The British and French both formed alliances with Native American groups during
these conflicts. In Canada, for example, a series of battles known as the French
and Indian Wars took place, where both sides relied on Native American
support.
At the same time, Europeans were still trying to figure out
how to categorize and understand Native American cultures. After Columbus
arrived in the Americas, questions were raised in Europe about whether
Indigenous people had souls or could be “saved.” Over time, this led to the
idea that Native Americans were what European thinkers like Jean-Jacques
Rousseau might call noble savages—people who lived outside of European
civilization but were still seen as naturally moral or pure in some way. This
idea was used to justify attempts to convert them to Christianity. It wasn’t
just a personal belief system; it shaped how artists, writers, and governments
talked about Indigenous people.
These ideas show up in West’s painting. He was an
American-born painter working in England, and he often supported British
perspectives in his work. In this painting, he shows General James Wolfe, a
British officer, dying during the 1759 Battle of Quebec. Wolfe is placed in the
center of the scene, surrounded by a group of men. His pose and the way he’s
lit make him look a lot like traditional images of Christ, especially from
scenes known as depositions, where Christ is taken down from the cross.
The way Wolfe's body is shown—laid out and gently supported by those around
him—closely matches the structure of those religious paintings.
West used this setup to make Wolfe appear as a kind of
martyr, but instead of dying for religion, Wolfe is shown dying for his
country. The British flag in the scene is positioned in a way that mirrors how
a cross might appear in a Christian painting, reinforcing the connection. This
kind of imagery wasn’t new—artists had used religious symbolism for
centuries—but here, it’s being used to support national identity and politics
rather than religion.
The painting reflects how visual art in the late 1700s began
to play a role in shaping political ideas, not just spiritual ones. The symbols
used—like Wolfe’s pose, the lighting, and the arrangement of figures—are pulled
from earlier Christian imagery and adapted to tell a national story.
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