Background
He was born on 14 October 1859 in Woodstock, Virginia to Barnett M. Clinedinst and Mary C. S.
He was born on 14 October 1859 in Woodstock, Virginia to Barnett M. Clinedinst and Mary C. S.
He attended Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. He studied for a year in Baltimore and for five years in Paris under Cabanel and Bonnat and first attracted attention in New York with his illustrations for Leslie"s Weekly.
His sympathetic collaboration with the various authors gave his work an especial charm. He was awarded the Evans prize of the American Watercolor Society in 1900. In 1894, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate Academician, and became a full Academician in 1898.
He died on 12 September 1931 in Pawling, New New York
In 1947, the nonprofit Artists" Fellowship, Incorporated. established the Benjamin West Clinedinst Memorial Medal for exceptional artistic merit. Past winners include William H. Bailey, Will Barnet, Stanley Bleifeld, Paul Cadmus, Lois Dodd, Jane Freilicher, Robert Beverly Hale, Paul Jenkins, Morton Kaish, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Robert Kipniss, Knox Martin, Louise Nevelson, Pat Oliphant, Philip Pearlstein, and Norman Rockwell.