History of the Royal Academy

History of the Royal Academy by William Sandby Vol I p. 306:

In 1779 Richard Westall, like Hogarth,was apprenticed to an heraldic engraver on silver, named Thompson, in Gutter Lane, Cheapside; but while thus employed, a miniature painter named Alefounder recommended him to adopt painting as a profession. Accordingly, after learning at an evening school of art, he became a student of the RA in 1785, and shortly afterwards he commenced his career as an artist by exhibiting a picture from Chaucer's sarcastic poem of "January and May".

Annual Register (1837, p 161) remarked : In this humble department (engraving on silver with Mr Thompson) of the arts, Mr Westall's genius raised him above his fellows, he became acquainted with Mr Alefounder, an eminent miniature painter, who perceived his superior talents, and kindly fostered and encouraged them. In the last year of Mr W's apprenticeship Mr Thompson permitted him to draw at the RA, in the evenings. In 1786, Mr W was emancipated from, to his genius, a painful thraldom, and immediatly commenced his splendid career.