Joseph Walter West (born Sculcoates, Yorkshire 3 May 1860; died Northwood, London, 27 June 1933), also known as J. Walter West or Walter West, was an artist, lithographer and designer of bookplates.
West was the son of Alfred West, a seed crusher and corn dealer, and his wife Sarah Ann West, née Petchell. The family were Quakers. West's first employment was as a cashier with the engineering firm of Priestman Brothers of Hull and, whilst working there, he studied art at Bootham School in York. [1] Having saved a modest amount from his wages, in 1883 he travelled to London to study at St John's Wood Art School, then at the Royal Academy Schools and in Paris at the Académie Julian. [2]
In 1887 West was awarded a silver medal by the Royal Academy for a drawing of a head from life. [3] In 1893 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Artists and in 1904 he was elected to the Royal Watercolour Society. [4] He was Vice President of the RWS from 1918 – 1920. [4] Between 1916 and 1931 West designed seven posters for London Underground. [5] He often signed his work with a monogram consisting of a weathervane pointing west and the letters of his surname.
In 1892 West married Ada Caroline Wise (1860–1952) with whom he had four daughters, one of whom was the artist Cicely West (1897–1977). He was buried at the Friends Burial Ground at Jordans, Buckinghamshire. [4]
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly in London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the fine arts through exhibitions, education and debate.
William Strang was a Scottish painter and printmaker, notable for illustrating the works of Bunyan, Coleridge and Kipling.
William Powell Frith was an English painter specialising in genre subjects and panoramic narrative works of life in the Victorian era. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1853, presenting The Sleeping Model as his Diploma work. He has been described as the "greatest British painter of the social scene since Hogarth".
Valentine Cameron Prinsep was a British painter of the Pre-Raphaelite school.
Sophie Gengembre Anderson was a French-born British Victorian painter who was also active in America for extended periods. She specialised in genre paintings of children and women, typically in rural settings. She began her career as a lithographer and painter of portraits, collaborating with Walter Anderson on portraits of American Episcopal bishops. Her work, Elaine, was the first public collection purchase of a woman artist. Her painting No Walk Today was purchased for more than £1 million.
Sir George Clausen was a British artist working in oil and watercolour, etching, mezzotint, drypoint and occasionally lithographs. He was knighted in 1927.
The Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy.
Henry Moore was an English marine and landscape painter.
The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE), known until 1991 as the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, is a leading art institution based in London, England. The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, as it was originally styled, was a society of etchers established in London in 1880 and given a Royal Charter in 1888. Engraving was included within the scope of the Society from 1897, wood-engraving from 1920, coloured original prints from 1957, lithography from 1987 and all forms of creative forward-thinking original printmaking from 1990.
Solomon Joseph Solomon was a British painter, a founding member of the New English Art Club and member of the Royal Academy.
John Terrick Williams, better known as Terrick Williams was a British painter who was a member of the Royal Academy.
Frederick Walker was a British social realist painter and illustrator. He was described by Sir John Everett Millais as "the greatest artist of the century".
Robert Anning Bell was an English artist and designer.
Louise Jane Jopling was an English painter of the Victorian era, and one of the most prominent female artists of her generation.
William Logsdail was a prolific English landscape, portrait, and genre painter. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists, the Grosvenor Gallery, the New Gallery (London), and others. He is notable for his realistic London and Venice scenes and his plein air style.
Scottish art in the nineteenth century is the body of visual art made in Scotland, by Scots, or about Scottish subjects. This period saw the increasing professionalisation and organisation of art in Scotland. Major institutions founded in this period included the Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland, the Royal Scottish Academy of Art, the National Gallery of Scotland, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the Glasgow Institute. Art education in Edinburgh focused on the Trustees Drawing Academy of Edinburgh. Glasgow School of Art was founded in 1845 and Grays School of Art in Aberdeen in 1885.
John Finnie was a Scottish landscape painter and engraver. He was best known in London for his original mezzotint engravings of landscape, and exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Society of Painters, Etchers, and Engravers. When he moved to Towyn in northern Wales he painted numerous landscape paintings of places in the Capel Curig area, such as Snowdon. He was headmaster of the Liverpool Mechanics Institute and School of Art from 1855 until 1896. Several paintings related to him are on display in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and the Portsmouth Museum.
Alfred Ernest Egerton Cooper, RBA, ARCA, was a British painter of portraits, landscapes and other figurative work. In the era of Modernism, he continued to work in traditional style from his studio in Chelsea, London.
William John Seward Webber was an English sculptor who created civic statuary, and busts of national heroes and local worthies, in marble. He sculpted the statue of Queen Victoria for the Jubilee Monument in Harrogate, North Riding of Yorkshire, England in 1887. An early success was his Warrior and Wounded Youth group of 1878, executed while he was still a student. His busts include portraits of the Duke of Clarence, John Charles Dollman, Henry Phillpotts, John Bowring, John Ruskin, Richard Jefferies, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Charles Darwin, Walter Scott, Thomas Carlyle, Robert Burns and Thomas Holroyd.
Bernard Walter Evans was a British landscape painter and watercolourist in the Romantic style, working mainly in Birmingham, Wales, London, Cannes and the North Riding of Yorkshire. Because he used a "heavy, cumbrous" horse-drawn van to reach remote sites in Yorkshire, his nickname there was Van Evans, and he was recognisable with his wideawake hat, pipe and neckerchief. He was known for his arduous days of painting in the hard Yorkshire winters, with frozen water pots, little food, and only a paraffin stove to warm his hands.