This plate, the death of General Wolfe, is with his gracious permition humply dedicated by his Mayestis most dutyfully subject & servant

Representation of the battle of Quebeck with the death of General Wolf.

During the 1759 Battle of Quebec of the French and Indian War, the British General James Wolfe suffered a mortal wound. He lay dying, surrounded by his officers, as news broke that his army had won the battle. His courageous victory and death secured a place for him as a martyr in the pantheon of British war heroes.
Eleven years later, Benjamin West secured his own fame as the preeminent painter of the 18th century with his painting The Death of General Wolfe. In his moving portrayal of Wolfe’s last moments, West painted a Christ-like General Wolfe expiring before his trusted comrades, who look on in various expressions of grief. The painting was exhibited in the 1771 Royal Academy exhibition in London. A year after the painting was exhibited, the enterprising publisher John Boydell signed an agreement with engravers William Woollett and William Ryland to publish a print after the painting and a key that identified six men in the foreground in cooperation with West. Finished in 1776, it was an instant success. Woollett’s engravings netted a spectacular profit of over 15,000 pounds by 1790. This print was truly England’s first widely successful reproductive print. After this painting,
Prints generated a new popular taste and market for historical pictures. Middle-class people could purchase them to hang in their parlors and sitting rooms, while shops, inns, and restaurants displayed them on the walls. Prints after West’s composition traveled to France, Germany, and America. While Woollett continued to pull prints from the original plate for a long time, many other copies and interpretations (including counterfeit prints) sprang up in England and abroad. spot.fr/2012/06/death-of-general-wolfe.html">Rosenbach Library blog.