The Death of Procris

1770, retouched 1803

Benjamin West
British, born in America, 1738-1820

Status: On View, Gallery 220
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Benjamin West
Title: The Death of Procris
Origin: England
Date: 1770
Medium: Oil on panel
Inscriptions: B. West / 1770 (lower left corner), Retouched. 1803. (along lower edge, left of center)
Dimensions: 32.4 × 41.2 cm (12 3/4 × 16 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of William O. Cole
Reference Number: 1900.445
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/57148/manifest.json

“Benjamin West, Esq., President of the Royal Academy, Etc.,” in Public Characters of 1805 (London, 1805) p. 567.
“Biographical Sketch of Benjamin West, Esq., President of the Royal Academy, Etc., Etc,” Universal Magazine 3 (June 1805), p. 531.
Joel Barlow, The Columbiad: A Poem (Philadelphia, 1807), p. 453 n. 45 (list of West’s works).
“A Correct Catalogue of the Works of Benjamin West, Esq.,” La Belle Assemblée, or Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine 4 (1808), suppl., p. 18.
John Galt, The Life, Studies, and Works Benjamin West, Esq., President of the Royal Academy of London, vol. 2 (London, 1820), p. 231.
Art Institute of Chicago, General Catalogue of Objects in the Museum (Chicago, 1904), p. 202, no. 342.
Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of Sculpture, Paintings and Other Objects (Chicago, 1907), p. 214, no. 342.
Art Institute of Chicago, General Catalogue of Sculpture, Paintings, and Other Objects (Chicago, 1910), p. 193. no. 342.
Art Institute of Chicago, General Catalogue of Paintings, Sculpture, and Other Objects in the Museum (Chicago, 1913), p. 149, no. 342.
Art Institute of Chicago, General Catalogue of Paintings, Sculpture, and Other Objects in the Museum (Chicago, 1914), p. 139, no. 342.
Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, and Architecture (Chicago, 1917), p. 160, no. 544.
Art Institute of Chicago, Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, Paintings, and Drawings (Chicago, 1920), p. 55, no. 544.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago, 1925), pp. 82, 157, no. 544.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago, 1932), pp. 102, 176, no. 00.445.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), p. 481.
Esther Sparks, “Three Narrative Paintings by Benjamin West in the Collection,” Bulletin of The Art Institute of Chicago 68, 4 (1974), pp. 6–7, ill.
Ruth S. Kreamer, Drawings by Benjamin West and His Son Raphael Lamar West, exh. cat. (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975), p. 66, under no. 131, p. 83, under no. 205.
John Dillenberger, Benjamin West: The Context of His Life’s Work with Particular Attention to Paintings with Religious Subject Matter (San Antonio, Texas, 1977), p. 179, no. 406.
Helmut von Erffa and Allen Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West (New Haven and London, 1986), p. 228, under no. 116, p. 242, no. 150, ill.
Peter Cannon-Brookes in The Painted Word: British History Painting, 1750–1830, exh. cat. (Heim Gallery, London, 1991), p. 60, under no. 20.
Malcolm Warner in Susan Wise and Malcolm Warner, French and British Paintings from 1600 to 1800 in The Art Institute of Chicago. A Catalogue of the Collection (Chicago, 1996), pp. 293–6, ill.
Steven Conn and Andrew Walker, “The History in the Art: Painting the Civil War,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 27, 1 (2001), pp. 663-64, fig. 2.

London, Royal Academy of Arts, 1771, no. 214.
London, West’s Gallery, 1822–28, no. 35.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, 1933, no. 429, as Troilus and Cressida.
Minneapolis, University of Minnesota, University Gallery, American Painting, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries, 1939, no. 42, as Troilus and Cressida.
Saginaw, Michigan, Saginaw Museum, American Paintings from Colonial Times until Today, 1948, no. 67, as Troilus and Cressida.

Benjamin West (died 1820); by descent to his sons, Raphael Lamar West and Benjamin West Jr.; sold Robins, London, May 22–25, 1829, lot 63, to W. J. Ward for 34 gns [Von Erffa and Staley 1986 and Algernon Graves, Art Sales, vol. 3 (London, 1921), p. 329]. Mrs. Albert F. West, wife of the artist’s great-grandson; sold Christie’s London, March 18–19, 1898, lot 133. William O. Cole, given to the Art Institute, 1900.

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