Matthew Ehret: 06-01-2026,
This essay examines an important battle nearly wiped memory that saw the emergence of a republican vanguard of artists and statesmen set the stage for a new renaissance in America. The contents featured below are an extract from the newly published first 228 page RTF Anthology “The Art of Liberty”. The previous installment can be read here.
In order to dive into an appreciation for the incredible figure of Benjamin West (friend of Ben Franklin, mentor of Samuel Morse, and leader of an American renaissance movement in England), let’s start this essay by reviewing an interesting painting from 1795 titled ‘The Royal Academicians’.
In the center is the president of the English Royal Academy of Fine Arts who trained Samuel F.B. Morse, and he is surrounded by different artists and artwork from the British Royal Academy.
That president and co-founder of the English Royal Academy is named Benjamin West.
Benjamin West was heralded, and for good reason, as the greatest living painter during his lifetime, and is a man of untold anomalies.
He was born in 1737—the same year as King George III, and was a Quaker, but that is not too anomalous. However, when we ask WHERE was this man born? Our story gets very interesting… since this President of the English Royal Academy of Fine Arts was born in Pennsylvania!
He’s a Quaker born in Pennsylvania,