Frederick Walker (painter)
Frederick Walker
Life and work
Early life and training
Walker was born at 90
Walker received his education at a local school and later at the
In March 1858 he was admitted as a student to the
As illustrator
In 1859 Walker joined the Artists' Society in Langham Chambers, and from 1860 to 1865 achieved great success as a black-and-white illustrator for popular journals of the day such as
As artist
Walker produced his first important watercolour, "Strange faces" in 1862 at Yale Center for British Art, New Haven,[6] and in the following year "Philip in Church",[7] which won a medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. Walker exhibited at the Royal Watercolour Society from 1864 until the end of his life, becoming an associate member in February 1864[8] and a full member in 1866,[2] entitling him to add the post-nominal initials RWS to his name. In 1871 he was elected an Associate Royal Academician (ARA), and was elected an honorary member of the Belgian Watercolour Society in the same year.[2]
In 1863 Walker exhibited his first oil painting, The Lost Path at the Royal Academy of Arts. Thereafter he showed "Wayfarers" (1866, private collection), "Bathers" (1867, Lady Lever Art Gallery), "Vagrants" (1868, Tate, London),[9] "The Old Gate" (1869, Tate, London), The Plough (1870; Tate Britain, London), At the Bar (1871; Untraced), The Harbour of Refuge[10] (1872, Tate, London) and The Right of Way (1875; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne).
Final years
Walker never married, spending his life in London with family members: his brother John (died 1868), his sister Fanny (died 1876) and his mother (died 1874). They resided in Bayswater from 1863. He twice visited Paris in 1863 and 1867, and Venice in 1868 and 1870, in the latter case with a friend, William Quiller Orchardson. In 1873 he travelled to Algiers in a failed attempt to recuperate from a bout of tuberculosis that worsened until his death in June 1875 at St Fillans in Perthshire, Scotland. He was buried at Cookham.
Books partly illustrated by Walker
- W. M. Thackeray, The Adventures of Philip[11] (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1862)
- George Dalziel, A Round of days[4] (London: Routledge, 1866)
- R. W. Buchanan, Wayside Posies[5] (London: Routledge, 1867)
- W. M. Thackeray,Denis Duval[12] (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1867)
Notes
- ^ Armstrong 1899, pp. 51–53
- ^ a b c Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Walker's first published illustration appeared in Everybody's Journal on 14 January 1860, for a story by Edmond About called "The Round of Wrong" (Phillips, p. 11).
- ^ a b "A Round of days described in original poems". Internet Archive.
- ^ a b "Wayside posies; original poems of the country life". Internet Archive.
- ^ "Strange Faces - Frederick Walker - The Athenaeum". the-athenaeum.org.
- ^ "'Philip in Church', Frederick Walker - Tate". Tate.
- ^ 'Minor topics of the month', The Art Journal, March 1864, p. 90.
- ^ "'The Old Gate', Frederick Walker - Tate". Tate.
- ^ "'The Harbour of Refuge', Frederick Walker - Tate". Tate.
- ^ "The adventures of Philip on his way through the world: shewing who robbed him, who helped him, and who passed him by: to which is now prefixed A shabby genteel story". Internet Archive.
- ^ "Denis Duval, Lovel the widower, The Wolves and the lamb, The second funeral of Napoleon... with illustrations by the author and by Frederick Walker". Internet Archive.
Further reading
- J. Comyns Carr, Essays on Art[1] (London: Smith, Elder, & Co, 1879), pp. 198–222
- John George Marks, Life and letters of Frederick Walker, A.R.A.[2] (London: Macmillan & Co, 1896)
- Claude Phillips, Frederick Walker and his works[3] (London: Seeley & Co, 1897)
- Clementina Black, Frederick Walker[4] (London: Duckworth & Co, 1902)
- Redgrave, Gilbert Richard. A history of water-colour painting in England[5] (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1905)
- Donato Esposito, 'Frederick Walker (1840–1875)', in Frederick Walker and the Idyllists (London: Lund Humphries, 2017), pp. 35–59
References
- ^ "Essays on art". Internet Archive.
- ^ "Life and letters of Frederick Walker, A. R. A." Internet Archive.
- ^ "Frederick Walker and his works". Internet Archive.
- ^ "Frederick Walker". Internet Archive.
- ^ "A history of water-colour painting in England". Internet Archive.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 271.
- Armstrong, Walter (1899). Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 59. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 51–53. . In
External links
- 8 artworks by or after Frederick Walker at the Art UK site
- Works by or about Frederick Walker at Internet Archive
- Fred Walker ARA (Biog at southwilts.com)
- Frederic Walker (Art Renewal Center Museum)
- Frederic Walker (Victorian web)
- Frederic Walker online (artcyclopedia.com)
- Walker at the Tate Gallery
- Autumn (1865 watercolour at the V & A)
- Spring (1865 watercolour at the V & A)
- Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections