The Last Supper

1786

Benjamin West American, 1738-1820

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

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Provenance

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

British King George III commissioned this enormous painting from Benjamin West in 1786, when the American-born artist was living in London as the king’s official history painter. That position paid a substantial income and supported West’s ambitions to paint monumental canvases depicting scenes from the Bible.

In this image of the Last Supper, Judas looms prominently in the foreground, a reference to John 13:30: “As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.” West chose to cast the outsized figure of Judas in a sickly green shadow, prompting the critic Horace Walpole to quip, “he seems more likely to burst by his bulk than through guilt.” King George III donated this painting to Saint George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle along with monumental stained-glass windows also designed by West.

Title The Last Supper

Artwork Date 1786

Artist Benjamin West

Life Dates 1738-1820

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 98 × 140 1/2 inches (248.9 cm × 3 m 56.9 cm) Framed: 114 × 154 1/2 × 5 1/2 inches (289.6 cm × 3 m 92.4 cm × 14 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund and Gibbs-Williams Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 80.101

Markings

Signed Signed and dated, lower left: B. West 1786

Provenance

1786, commissioned by George III (Windsor, England).
June 2, 1978, sale, Dean and Canons of Windsor, Sotheby's, lot 132 (London, England).
dealer, Somerville and Simpson (London, England) and dealer, P. and D. Colnaghi (London, England).
1980-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition 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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Published References

Evans, Dorinda. Benjamin West and His American Students. Exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery. Washington, D.C., 1980, p. 19 (fig. 4).

Bulletin of the DIA 59, no. 4 (1981): p. 109 (ill.).

Von Erffa, Helmut, and Allen Staley. The Paintings of Benjamin West. New Haven, 1986, pp. 354-355, no. 346.

Black, Mary, et al. American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Vol. 1, Works by Artists Born Before 1816. New York, 1991, pp. 229-231, no. 106.

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Benjamin West, The Last Supper, 1786, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund and Gibbs-Williams Fund, 80.101.