Benjamin West

(Pennsylvania 1738-1820 London)

Sir William and Lady Young with their youngest child beside a draped column

Footnotes

Provenance
Sir William Young, 1st Baronet of Dominica, West Indies (1725-1788)
Sir William Young, 2nd Baronet (1750-1815)
Sir William Lawrence Young, 3rd Baronet (1778-1824)
Sir William Lawrence Young, 4th Baronet (1806-1842)
Sir William Norris Young, 5th Baronet (1833-1854)
Sir George John Young, 6th Baronet (1835-1854)
Sir Charles Lawrence Young, 7th Baronet (1839-1887)
Sir William Lawrence Young, 8th Baronet (1864-1921)
Sir Charles Alban Young, 9th Baronet (1865-1944), and by descent to the present owners

Literature
H. von Erffa and A. Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West, 1986, p. 569, no. 723, ill. p. 28

William Young (1725-1788) was from a wealthy family who owned land in Antigua where he grew up, and he divided his time between his Wiltshire estate and his property in the West Indies. He was widowed shortly after his first marriage and married his second wife, Elizabeth Taylor (1729-1801), daughter of the eminent mathematician Dr. Brook Taylor, in 1747; the couple had nine children and it is likely that this portrait shows William and Elizabeth with their youngest daughter, Olivia.

We know that the Youngs were in England in 1767-8, when William bought the Elizabethan manor house of Delaford near Iver in Buckinghamshire, and they must have sat to West during that visit. It is possible that this portrait was painted to celebrate the acquisition of his new estate; during the same visit to England he also commissioned the large conversation piece of his family from Zoffany which now hangs in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. The Youngs were clearly supporters of West, as in addition to the present portrait they also enlisted him to paint the Eton leaving portrait of their son William (1750-1815) the same year, of which there are two versions and they also acquired his Venus lamenting the death of Adonis in 1768.

The year after this portrait was painted, in 1768, William was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Dominica and in 1769 a baronetcy was conferred on him; he became Lieutenant-Governor of Tobago in 1770. Whilst the family's wealth was undeniably derived from the West Indian sugar trade, Sir William and his eldest son wrote extensively about their ideas for improvements to plantations which included ameliorating conditions for those who worked on them.

Benjamin West was born in Pennsylvania, and after achieving some success there as a portraitist he was sponsored by Dr William Smith, Provost of the College of Philadelphia, and a wealthy local patron, William Allen, to study painting in Rome. He was to spend three years in Italy during which time he met George III's librarian, Richard Dalton, who was there to buy paintings for the King's collection. Dalton invited him to England where he arrived in 1763 at the age of 25. His initial intention was to continue on to America, but instead he took rooms in Covent Garden and gradually established himself as a painter in London. He is principally remembered for his often-large history pieces, but he also undertook many portrait commissions. In 1772 George III appointed him chief historical painter to the court and he completed a series of eight large canvases for St George's Hall at Windsor, with a further 28 for a chapel there. A mark of his success was his appointment as President of the Royal Academy following on from Reynolds, and Surveyor of the King's Pictures from 1791 till his death in 1820. He was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.