s The Pillion - Hull Museums Collections

The Pillion

West was born into a Quaker family in Holderness Road, Hull. He was educated at Bootham School in York where he studied art under Edwin Moore (1813-1893). Following seven years working as a cashier in an engineering works in Hull, he went to London in 1883 and studied at the Royal Academy Schools, where he won a silver medal in 1887. As Vice President of the Royal Watercolour Society West was a regular exhibitor, both there and at the Royal Academy. T. R. Ferens, principal benefactor of the Ferens Art Gallery, was a patron of West's. The Pillion is a romantic history painting. Stylistically, it owes a debt to the Pre-Raphaelites, whose colourful scenes of chivalry and subjects from Arthurian legend were fashionable in the latter part of the 19th century. West dresses his characters in 18th century costume and employs the jewel-like hues of the Pre-Raphaelites to bathe the scene in a rich and atmospheric dappled light. The Pillion is possibly one and the same with a painting of this title exhibited by West at London's Royal Academy in 1900. It was later exhibited in Hull at the Spring Exhibition, 1908.