Joseph Walter West, was born at Hull, Yorkshire on 3 May 1860, son of Alfred West (c.1823 - 9 February 1908), seed crusher & corn dealer, and his wife Sarah Ann née Petchell (11 July 1823 - 5 December 1897), who married at Friends' Meeting House, Lowgate, Hull on 10 September 1846. In 1861, Joseph was an 11 month old baby, living at High Street, Swanland, East Riding, Yorkshire with his parents, 37 year old Alfred and 37 year old Sarah and his three siblings, Sophia Helena 7, Sarah Ann 6 and Thomas Henry 2. In 1881, a 20 year old cashier, a visitor at Danthorpe, Hambledon, East Riding, Yorkshire, the home of his 34 year old brother-in-law, Walter Stickney, a land agent & farmer of 1,130 acres, and his wife 24 year old wife Sophia Stickney née West and their family. Joseph spent his early years at the engineering firm of Priestman Brothers of Hull and whilst working as a cashier, studied under Edwin Moore (1813-1893) at Bootham School in York. Having saved a modest amount from his wages at Hull, he proceeded to to study at St John's Wood School of Art 1883 then at the Royal Academy Schools 1884–1887 under Edwin Moore (1813-1893) and at the Académie Julian, Paris and in Italy. He married at Croydon, Surrey in 1891, Ada Caroline Wise (1861-12 March 1952) and after living at Croydon, Harrow and Northwood, in 1911 was a 50 year old artist painter in oil and watercolour, illustrator, engraver, living at The Vane, Uxbridge, Middlesex with his 50 year old wife Ada and their four daughters, Iris Lilian Pechell 18, Marjorie Grace Halbourn 17, Sylvia Wyse 15 and Victoria Cicely Grafton 13. Painter, etcher, lithographer and illustrator, working in many media, his subjects being mainly animals, after which he turned to genre and about 1910 to landscape. Joseph exhibited 17 works at the Royal Academy from 1885 included 'Sunshine, Breeze, and Blossom, Lake Como' which was purchased for the Tate Galley, others include 'To Gretna Green' and 'The Coming of Arthur' and he was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1893 when he exhibited from 5 West Hampstead Studios, Sheriff Road, London, four works 'On the Brink of a Catastrophe', 'A Sunshiny Shower', 'The Nightingale's Evensong' and 'When the Men are at the War'. He was also a member of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colour from 1904 and was a vice-president 1918-1920. A member of the Ipswich Art Club 1890-1891 and exhibited from West Hampstead Studios, Sheriff Road in 1890, 'The Rising Moon'. When living at The Vane, Northwood, Middlesex, he spent his summer holidays sketching and painting in the Italian Lakes. Joseph Walter West died at The Vane, Northwood, Middlesex on 27 June 1933, aged 73 and his wife died at the same address in 1952. West also used the names of Walter West and J. Walter West and signed his works with a weathercock pointing west with the letters 'West'.
- https://suffolkartists.co.uk/index.cgi?choice=painter&pid=1740 (accessed 5/8/2022)