Study for "Alexander III, King of Scotland, Saved from a Stag by Colin Fitzgerald"

Study for "Alexander III, King of Scotland, Saved from a Stag by Colin Fitzgerald"

Benjamin West

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

West’s drawings reveal his genius as a teacher, who not only respected the academic tradition of making drawings before painting but also had a great flair for the expressive media of ink, watercolor, and graphite. He made several sketches for his interpretation of an apocryphal episode from the history of Clan MacKenzie: the clan’s founder, Colin Fitzgerald, is depicted in the act of killing the stag that attacked Alexander III of Scotland in the forests near Kincardine. West’s composition and manner of rendering were surely inspired by the battle and hunt pictures of Peter Paul Rubens, especially “Wolf and Fox Hunt” (10.73), which West had seen at Corsham Court in 1763.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study for "Alexander III, King of Scotland, Saved from a Stag by Colin Fitzgerald"Study for "Alexander III, King of Scotland, Saved from a Stag by Colin Fitzgerald"Study for "Alexander III, King of Scotland, Saved from a Stag by Colin Fitzgerald"Study for "Alexander III, King of Scotland, Saved from a Stag by Colin Fitzgerald"Study for "Alexander III, King of Scotland, Saved from a Stag by Colin Fitzgerald"

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.