Phillip Medhurst

The Conversion of Saint Paul (centre); Saint Paul Persecuting the Christians (left); and Ananias Restoring Saint Paul’s Sight (right). 1786. Oil on canvas. All panels together: 56 x 54 ins; 142.24 x 137.16 cms. Five Colleges and Historic Deerfield Museum Consortium, Amherst. In the left panel, Paul is presented as a Roman soldier who persecuted Christians. The central panel shows the moment of his conversion to Christianity. In the right panel, he is baptized as a Christian and his sight is restored. The painting is one of two large, finished studies West created (the other is in the Dallas Museum of Art) for a window in St. Paul’s Church in Birmingham, England. This is the later, sketchier treatment, painted in response to the acclaim with which the altarpiece was greeted when it was exhibited in London at the Royal Academy.)