On view
American Art
Wilmerding Pavilion
Sarah Shaw Anschutz Gallery
Wilmerding Pavilion
Sarah Shaw Anschutz Gallery
A Mighty Angel Standeth upon the Land and upon the Sea,
1797
Benjamin West, 1738–1820; born Springfield [now Swarthmore], PA; died London, England
2021-42
Part of a commission for the English eccentric William Beckford’s Revelation Chamber at Fonthill Abbey, his fantastic Gothic Revival folly in Wiltshire, these richly developed oil sketches are—as the arched shape of one suggests—likely studies for stained-glass windows. Each illustrates a passage from the New Testament’s apocalyptic Book of Revelation, in which God vanquishes the powers of evil and ushers in a righteous messianic kingdom. Beckford’s fabulous wealth derived from several Jamaican sugar plantations, at which three thousand people were enslaved. He paid West a substantial retainer to assist his designs for Fonthill, including the planned Chamber, with walls five feet thick, in order to receive his family’s coffins. However, the chamber disappeared from Beckford’s evolving plans, and Fonthill Abbey, declared finished in 1813, was demolished following the third collapse of its hastily constructed three-hundred-foot tower.
Information
Title
A Mighty Angel Standeth upon the Land and upon the Sea
Dates
1797
Maker
Medium
Oil on paper mounted on panel
Dimensions
78.7 × 54.3 cm (31 × 21 3/8 in.)
frame: 97.5 × 73 × 9.8 cm (38 3/8 × 28 3/4 × 3 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund
Object Number
2021-42
Place Made
Europe, England
Signatures
Signed and dated (lower right): B. West / 1797
Culture
Type
Materials
Subject
Created for William Beckford, Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire, England; (possibly) sale, Christie’s, London, September 17–22, 1822, no. 26 or 27, as Scene from the Revelation; (possibly) sale, Phillips, London, October 10–15, 1823, no. 152, 153, 349, or 350; probably the “fine sketch of angel” bought by Sir John Fleming Leicester (Lord de Tabley) from William Carey in 1825, and sold in the de Tabley sale, Christie’s, London, July 7, 1827, no. 18, as The angel, from the Revelations, standing on earth and sea; to Jackson; sale, Christie’s, London, July 13, 1931, no. 51, as The Archangel Gabriel; to Feldman; Hannah Mee Horner, Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, 1938; Mrs. Linden T. Harris, Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, 1959; [Rabin & Krueger Gallery, Newark, New Jersey, 1964]; to James H. Ricau (1916–1993), Piermont, New York, 1964–93; to his estate
- The exhibition of the Royal Academy, MDCCXCVIII. The thirtieth. (London: The Royal Academy of Arts, 1798), no. 76
- “A Correct Catalogue of the Works of Mr. West. / ... / Mr. West’s House at Windsor. / Pictures painted by Mr. West for his own Collection.... / In the Gallery,” in Public Characters of 1805 (London: R. Phillips, 1805), p. 561, as “The mighty Angel, one Foot upon Sea, and the other on Earth”
- “A Correct List of the Works of Mr. West,” Universal Magazine 3 (1805), p. 528
- “A Correct Catalogue of the Works of Benjamin West, Esq. / ... / Mr. West’s House at Windsor. / Pictures painted by Mr. West for his own Collection.... / In the Gallery,” in La Belle Assemblée IV, Supplement (1808), p. 14
- Joel Barlow, The Columbiad: A Poem (London: R. Phillips, 1809), p. 432
- John Galt, The life, studies, and works of Benjamin West, esq., president of the Royal academy of London, composed from materials furnished by himself, (London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies; [etc., etc.], 1820)., Appendix II, p. 219
- Henri Marseau and Fioske Kimball, Benjamin West, 1738-1820 (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Museum of Art, 1938), no. 41, as “The Archangel Gabriel”
- Douglas Hall, “The Tabley House Papers,” Walpole Society 308 (1962), pp. 102, 106, 122, cat. no. 112
- Ruth S. Kraemer, Drawings by Benjamin West and His Son Raphael Lamar West (New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975), p. 37
- John Dillenberger, Benjamin West: The Context of His Life’s Work (San Antonio, Texas: Trinity University Press, 1977), pp. 109, 150 no. 127, 212 as “Archangel Gabriel”, 213 as “The Mighty Angel, one Foot upon Sea, the Other on Earth”
- Nancy L. Pressly, Revealed Religion: Benjamin West’s Commissions for Windsor Castle and Fonthill Abbey (San Antonio, Texas: San Antonio Museum of Art, 1983), p. 68
- Helmut von Erffa and Allen Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1986), pp. 392-93, no. 404, as “location unknown”
- Francis Greenacre, Francis Danby: 1793–1861 (London: Tate Gallery, 1988), p. 105
- Thomas Buser, Religious Art in the Nineteenth Century in Europe and America, vol. 2 (Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2002), p. 271
