  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.
  
  
  
  
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  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
  
  
  Copyright
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