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Gilbert Stuart (American, 17551828)
 Benjamin West, 178384
 Oil on canvas; 35 1/2 x 27 1/2 in. (90.2 x 69.9 cm)
 National Portrait Gallery, London
 NPG 349
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In John Boydell's gallery, Benjamin West and his work were everywhere the visitor looked. Stuart's portrait of William Woollett recalled West's initial claim to fame with The Death of General Wolfe; the image of John Hall included West's painting of William Penn's Treaty with the Indians; and Stuart's portrait of West himself referred to West's current work: a thirty-six picture commission for King George III's so-called Chapel of Revealed Religion at Windsor Castle. Stuart's inclusion of the figure of Moses behind West is clever, for in broadcasting West's major undertaking for the king, it depicts West in a situation similar to Moses'sreceiving orders from on high (for West, the king).
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