Christ Healing the Sick in the Temple, 1815

Christ Healing the Sick in the Temple, 1815
by
Benjamin West (1738—1820)

Oil on canvas. Penn Medicine, Pennsylvania Hospital Historic Collections, Philadelphia, PA.

West’s original version of this painting had been intended to fulfill a request for a painting from the Board of Managers of Pennsylvania Hospital. The works of an artist which ornament the palace of his King cannot fail to honor him in his native land, they assured him. On its completion in 1811 it was exhibited in London to immense crowds, and was subsequently purchased by the British Institution for 3,000 guineas — the largest sum ever paid for a modern work.

So West painted another, completed it in 1815, with a more improved plan of composition. It arrived in 1817 with the following note:

Benjamin West, Historical Painter to His Majesty George III, and the President of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, feels the highest satisfaction in informing the Managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital by having finished the picture of our Savior receiving the Lame and Blind in the Temple to heal them. And Mr. West bequeaths the said picture to the Hospital in the joint names of himself and his wife, the late Elizabeth West, as their gratuitous offering and as a humble record of their patriotic affection for the State of Pennsylvania, in which they first inhaled the vital air — thus to perpetuate in her native city of Philadelphia the sacred memory of that amiable lady who was his companion in life for fifty years and three months.

[Major General Henry] Knox proudly stepped aside on Tuesday, October 9 [1781] to allow Washington the honor of igniting the bore hole of a heavy siege gun and ceremoniously discharging the first shot from the American battery at Yorktown. The shell was clearly visible as it streaked across the sky and land with precision within the British compound, setting off cheers throughout the American ranks. The Continental artillery corps then continued an uninterrupted stream of fire that produced a relentless, unnerving, and deafening roar. Cornwallis would later recall: The fire continued incessant from heavy cannon, and from mortars and howitzers throwing shells from 8 to 16 inches, until all our guns on the left were silenced, our work much damaged, and our loss of men considerable

— Mark Puls
Henry Knox: Visionary General of the American Revolution (2008)