Amyas upon the Quay at Bideford
Date1920
Artist
Thornton Oakley
(American painter and illustrator, 1881–1953)
Illustration CitationWestward Ho! Or the Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the County of Devon, in the Reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty Queen Elizabeth, by Charles Kingsley (Philadelphia: George W. Jacobs, 1920)
MediumGouache and charcoal on illustration board
Dimensionscomposition: 31 3/4 × 23 5/8 in. (80.6 × 60 cm)
Credit LineGayle and Alene Hoskins Endowment Fund, 1981
Object number1981-6
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextCharles Kingsley's Westward Ho! (1855) is set in Elizabethan England. The main character Amyas Leigh sails with Francis Drake and other privateers to the Caribbean, where kidnappings, battles, and other dramas ensue. The wide sweep of sea and clouds, along with the caped man with his hand on his sword descending the stairs, hint at young Amyas' adventures to come.Thornton Oakley studied with Howard Pyle, whom he always credited with instilling his dedication to illustration: "We never heard one word from our beloved teacher concerning tools and methods. His utterances were only of the spirit, thought, philosophy ideals, vision, purpose."
