West, Wm. Edward, Artist
Section 11.1
ID # 110028

Artist’s History

William Edward West, artist, born in Lexington, Kentucky, December 10, 1788; died in Nashville, Tennessee, November 2, 1857.  He worked in the studio of Thomas Sully in Philadelphia, and in 1819 West visited Italy to continue his studies. He excelled especially in portraiture, and in Europe executed likenesses of Washington Irving, Lord Byron, and the Countess Guiecioli, Percy B. Shelly, Mrs. Hemans and many other well-known persons. His figure-pieces include “Pride of the Village,”  “Annette de l’Abre,” “Confessional” (belonging to the New York Historical Society), “the Toilet, and “Judith and Holofernes.”
                          Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, 2001

An excellent source is:
Pennington, Estill Curtis, William Edward West,
     1788-1857 Kentucky Painter. City of Washington:
    National Portrait Gallery-Smithsonian Institution,
    1985.