About the Artwork
In act 3, scene 4 of William Shakespeare’s King Lear, Lear wanders the wilderness during a fierce storm. His outlook is grim. Two of his daughters have betrayed him and his armies have abandoned him. As the storm rages, Lear mulls human nature, fate, and betrayal. He shouts, “unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art,” before tearing off his clothes to confront the storm naked and alone.
American painter Benjamin West painted this small sketch in anticipation of a monumental canvas of the same scene (now in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston). He painted that work for John and Josiah Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery on Pall Mall in London. In the later, larger version, West made substantial changes to the figure of Edgar (one of Lear’s subjects, here in disguise as the figure Poor Tom) seated at the lower right of the composition.
King Lear
ca. 1788
Benjamin West
1738-1820
American
Unknown
Oil on canvas
Unframed: 20 1/2 × 27 1/2 inches (52.1 × 69.9 cm) Framed: 27 × 34 × 4 inches (68.6 × 86.4 × 10.2 cm)
Paintings
American Art before 1950
Founders Society Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund
77.58
Public Domain
Markings
Signed, lower left: B. West
Label, formerly affixed to the back of the painting: Hamilton Palace, no. 1068.
Provenance
by 1838, William Beckford, Bath;his daughter Euphemia, wife of the tenth Duke of Hamilton;
the twelfth Duke of Hamilton.
June 17-July 20, Hamilton Palace sale, Christies, lot 1068 (London, England).
dealer, H. Graves and Co. (London, England).
1909, Thomas B. Walker (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA).
1937, Harry W. Peterson.
1977, Frank Gunter (Champaign, Illinois, USA).
1977-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Public Advertiser (June 5, 1789).
“A Correct Catalogue of the Works of Mr. West.” Public Characters of 1805 (1805): p. 566.
“A Correct List of the Works of Mr. West.” Universal Magazine 3 (1805): p. 530.
“A Correct Catalogue of the Works of Benjamin West, Esq.” La Belle Assemblee or Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine 4 (1808): p. 17.
Galt, John. The Life and Works of Benjamin West, ESQ., President of the Royal Academy of London, Subsequent to his Arrival in the Country. London, 1820, p. 229.
Lansdown, Charlotte, ed. Recollections of the Late William Beckford, of Fonthill, Wilts, and Lansdown, Bath. 1893, p. 13.
Catalogue of Paintings & Sculpture Placed in the Minneapolis Public Library by Thomas B. Walker, with an Appendix Giving a List and Description of Paintings and Sculptures Presented by Others. Exh. cat., Minneapolis Public Library. Minneapolis, 1909, no. 91.
Adams, R.H. The Walker Art Galleries, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minneapolis, 1927, p. 170, no. 317.
Friedman, Winifred H. Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery. New York, 1976, p. 150.
Dillenberger, John. Benjamin West: The Context of his Life’s Work with Particular Attention to Paintings with Religious Subject Matter. San Antonio, 1977, p. 174.
Cinco Siglos de Obras Maestras de la Peintura en Colecciones Norteamericanas Cedidas en Prestamo a Costa Rica. Exh. cat., Museo de Jade. San Jose, Costa Rica, 1978, pp. 28-29, no. 2 (ill.).
Bulletin of the DIA 56, 5 (1978): p. 263, no. 4 (ill.).
Sund, Judy. “Benjamin West: A Scene from King Lear.” Bulletin of the DIA 58, 3 (1980): pp. 127-136 (ill.).
Von Erffa, Helmut and Allen Staley. Benjamin West. New Haven, CT, 1986, p. 273, no. 211 (ill.).
Black, Mary, et al. American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Volume One: Works by Artists Born Before 1816. New York, 1991, pp. 234-237, no. 108.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Benjamin West, King Lear, ca. 1788, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund, 77.58.
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