Did you know that the leading painter of England during the American Revolution (who also served as President of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts) was a Philadelphian republican ally of Benjamin Franklin named Benjamin West? Did you know that a renaissance movement uniting arts and sciences was what made both the American revolution possible and provided the solution to the resolution of the apparent paradox of the enshrinement of “inalienable rights of the individual” contained in the Declaration of Independence alongside the General Welfare clause contained in the US Constitution?

In this lecture delivered as part of the Rising Tide Foundation series “Towards an Age of Creative Reason“, Matthew Ehret introduces the fight to establish an aesthetical revolution in the arts and sciences initiated by Benjamin Franklin which electrified Britain, and established a new paradigm of composition, painting, architecture and design in the USA under the leadership of Benjamin West, and Samuel B Morse.

This class introduces some major battles of universal history, and analyzes over a dozen paintings to gain insights into the nature of creativity, intention, and irony as it is expressed in the domain of visual arts.