Annie E. A. Walker
Annie E. Anderson Walker | |
---|---|
Born | October 5, 1855 |
Died | June 9, 1929 | (aged 73)
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Académie Julian Cooper Union |
Known for | Painting |
Style | Portrait |
Annie E. Anderson Walker (née Annie E. Anderson) (October 5, 1855 – June 9, 1929) was an
Biography
Born in
Within months of her rejection by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Walker traveled to New York City to apply at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.
Susan N. Carter, Principal of the Women's Art School at the Cooper Union in 1892, related this about Walker:
"A young colored woman came to the Cooper Union a few months ago. She was most ladylike and prepossessing in appearance. She brought with her a roll of drawings, on which she had been admitted to the Art School of the Corcoran Gallery in Washington. When she presented herself at that school, she was refused a place there, on the ground of her color solely. She showed me long letters from Frederick Douglas and others, protesting against such an injustice; but the decision against her was not changed. Knowing of the Cooper Institute, she came to New York to see about entering here. Recognizing the wrong done to her race in her exclusion from a school in the Capitol city of our country, twenty-seven years after our war was over, I felt that I was honoring New York City, as well as the dear memory of Mr. Cooper, if I let her at once have a place in my own office (as the class-rooms were full), till a vacancy should occur in the drawing-class room. This young colored girl is doing exceptionally well, and the kindness of her teacher and companions has helped to soothe her former grief."[6]
Walker studied at the Cooper Union from 1892 to 1895 and was a pupil of Thomas Eakins and John Henry Twachtman influenced Walker's luminous, impressionistic approach.[7] Upon Walker's graduation in 1895, Susan N. Carter detailed her success at the school:
"It may be remembered that three years ago a colored woman from Washington, D.C., was admitted to the Woman's Art School. Mrs. Annie E. A. Walker is her name. Coming to the Cooper Union she was received here, where Mr. Peter Cooper's free gift of instruction makes no distinction of race or nationality. Mrs. Walker has been a very satisfactory scholar and now graduates. She has earned and saved more than $600 since she entered the Cooper Union, and will use this money for a year's study in Paris, after which she proposes to open a studio for portrait painting. The energy, ability and fine character of this colored woman are very encouraging, as showing the possibilities of her race."[6]
After graduating in 1895, Walker sailed to Paris in September where she studied at the prestigious
Although Walker's promising career was tragically short,[5] she was noted especially for her pastels, which were compared with those of Alice Pike Barney, and which were shown at Howard University.[11] Art historian Tritobia Hayes Benjamin noted Walker's "..tireless courage, determination, and persistence in becoming an artist in the face of racism and sexism..."[5] She describes Walker's work as "...academic in style and execution, and illustrates an active intuitive ability and spirit, as well as a masterful control of the medium."[5] Walker died on June 9, 1929, at the age of 73, and was buried in Harmony Cemetery in Washington, D.C.[12]
Exhibitions
- 1896 Annual Paris Salon, Paris France[7]
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7679-0111-6.
- ^ "13 Jun 1929, 30 - Evening Star at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ )
- ^ Ancestry Library Edition[page needed]
- ^ a b c d e f g h Hayes Benjamin, Tritobia. Triumphant Determination: The Legacy of African American Women Artists (PDF).
- ^ a b "CUHP: 1859-1915". www.notnicemusic.com. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
- ^ a b Fonvielle-Bontemps, Jacqueline (1980). Forever free: art by African-American women 1862-1980. Alexandra, VA: Stephenson, Incorporated. p. 209.
- doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00204462. Retrieved 24 January 2017.)
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(help - ^ Walker, Annie E. A. (1 January 1896). "La Parisienne". Art Inventories Catalog. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 31 March 2017 – via siris-artinventories.si.edu Library Catalog.
- ISBN 978-0-87474-338-8.
- ISSN 0011-1422.
- ^ "13 Jun 1929, 30 - Evening Star at Newspapers.com". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2020-08-11.