Painter and engraver.
William Westall
This person is the subject of ongoing research. We have started by researching their relationship to the enslavement of people.
Biographical notes
Slavery connections
No known connections with slavery.
Abolition connections
During an expedition into the mountains near Bombay, Westall witnessed scenes of destitution and starvation. His chief servant acquired a boy from his parents, who hoped to save his life, for ‘a substantial meal and a few pounds of rice’. Upon their return to the coast, Westall, who remained on shore while the boat was being loaded, ‘put a previously formed project into effect: he drew some money from his pocket, and putting it into the young man’s hand, pointed to his native mountains. The language of nature was sufficient; with tears of joy and a look of astonishment and deep gratitude, the youth threw himself at his benefactor’s feet … his purchaser, standing on the deck of the vessel, looked at the scene with dismay, unable to interfere; contemplating the serous loss he had sustained, of a fine young fellow, whose value would have been fully appreciated in the slave-market’. (Robert Westall, ‘Memoir of William Westall, A.R.A.’, The Art-Journal, vol. 12, 1850, 104.)
National Gallery painting connections
Donor: bequeathed in 1851: NG1877 ( now at Tate, N01877).
Bibliography
History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/
Checked and not found
— Item on publisher's website
UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership, London 2020, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
Checked and not found
— Item on publisher's website
S. West, 'Westall family', in J. Turner et al. (eds), Grove Art Online, Oxford 1998-, https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T091238
Checked and found
— Item on publisher's website
R. J. Westall, 'Westall, William', in C. Matthew et al. (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford 1992-, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/29107
Checked and found
— Item on publisher's website