The American School

The American School is a 1765 oil painting by the American artist Matthew Pratt. It depicts an art class in progress in the studio of the Anglo-American painter Benjamin West in London. After a Grand Tour in Italy, the Pennsylvania-born West settled in England and became known for his history paintings, becoming in 1792 the second President of the Royal Academy. He had numerous students in London over many decades, and the painting shows him instructing several of them early in his time in the capital. West is the figure standing on the left, while Pratt is believed to be the figure sitting at the easel. Pratt returned to America in 1768 and became a portrait painter.

The painting was displayed at the Exhibition of 1766 held by the Society of Artists at Spring Gardens. Today the work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, having been acquired in 1897.

À propos du tableau

Notice

Dans la même salle · Gallery 717, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sur le même thème · Homme

Oui, elle reçoit

Ce qu’elle montre

Au catalogue

Sources

Madonna of Saint Jerome

William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland

Matthew Pratt Self-Portrait

John Swanwick

Moses Shown the Promised Land, 1801

Hagar and Ishmael, 1776, reworked 1803

Watson and the Shark, ca. 1778

Mrs. John Winthrop, 1773

Joseph Sherburne, ca. 1767–70

Mrs. Sylvanus Bourne, 1766

Mrs. Samuel Mifflin and Her Granddaughter Rebecca Mifflin Francis, 1777–80

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), 1778

Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat (obverse: The Potato Peeler), 1887

Terrasse à Sainte-Adresse, 1867

Les Musiciens, 1597

Self-Portrait, 1660

Portrait of Gerard de Lairesse, 1665–67

Aristote contemplant le buste d’Homère, 1653

Young Sailor II, 1906

Rubens, Helena Fourment (1614–1673), and Their Son Frans (1633–1678), ca. 1635