Martha Walter
"Swimming Pool"

Name: "Swimming Pool"
Brand: Martha Walter
Price: 21000 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Signed LR Born in Philadelphia, Martha Walter was a well-known Philadelphia Impressionist who specialized in light hearted, colorful beach scenes, especially of Gloucester, Coney Island, Atlantic City and from along the French Coast. Martha Walter studied at the Pennsylvania Academy under the admiring instructor William Merritt Chase who took Martha under his wing giving her both inspiration and direction. She enrolled with Chase at his summer school in Shinnecock, Long Island, and in 1903, was awarded the Cresson Traveling Scholarship by the Pennsylvania Academy. On a two-year traveling Cresson Scholarship, she visited France, Spain, Italy and Holland and attended the Academie Grande Chaumiere and the Academie Julian in Paris. Finding the academy structure too confining, she established a studio in the Rue De Bagneaus. Her painting captured the animation of the city and the light and color of seashore scenes. With the onset of World War I, she returned to the United States and set up a studio in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where she began painting plein-air subjects such as Ellis Island whilst becoming intrigued with the people as they arrived in ethnic costume from other countries, the fishing village of Gloucester, scenes of cheerful children, and the quintessential American beach scenes which have brought her national acclaim. Throughout her life, Walter continued to travel with great regularity capturing in oil & watercolor a wealth of landscapes and cultures across the globe. Martha lived a charmed life, keeping addresses in New York City, suburban Philadelphia and Gloucester while frequently traveling abroad. In her later years however she became reclusive not wanting to be disturbed by galleries and museums. Never married she lived to be 101 and was widely exhibited both nationally as well as internationally and was the recipient of many prestigious awards.

Creator:

Martha Walter (1875-1976, American)

Dimensions:

Height: 12 in (30.48 cm)Width: 16 in (40.64 cm)

Medium:

Watercolor

Movement & Style:

Impressionist

Period:

20th Century

Condition:

Ashley John is proud to offer this artwork by: Martha Walter (1875 - 1976).

Gallery Location:

Lambertville, NJ

Reference Number:

Seller: 1051stDibs: G131026157175

View Invoice

Shop All Martha Walter

Martha Walter

Walter was born in Philadelphia in 1875. She enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she studied under William Merritt Chase, who became her primary mentor. At his insistence, she entered a number of Academy student competitions and eventually won a prestigious Cresson Traveling Scholarship in 1908. This award enabled her to travel throughout Europe, where she continued her art education at the Grande Julien in Paris. Soon disenchanted with the academicism of the Parisian schools, Walter set out on her own and began producing plein-air paintings in the manner of the French Impressionists. At the outbreak of World War I, she returned to the United States and took up painting at various East coast beach resorts such as Coney Island and Gloucester. In her beach scenes of this period, colorful bathing suits, gowns and umbrellas punctuate a tranquil, pastel surface. Her expertise in the treatment of light and shadow is evident in her depictions of these settings at various times of day. In 1922, she spent some months painting the thousands of immigrants kept in the detention hall at Ellis Island. The dreadful, crowded conditions inspired a group of paintings that were exhibited that year in the Galerie Georges Petit in Paris. One was selected for the permanent collection of the Musée de Luxembourg. An exhibition at the Art Club of Chicago in 1941 featured a group of watercolor paintings inspired by the artist's travels through Spain and North Africa. These works were intensely colored visions of such subjects as Algerian street scenes, mosques and Spanish fishermen. Walter worked well into her nineties, continuing to paint portraits of women and children, beach scenes, gardens and marketplaces. Before her death in 1976, she had exhibited widely, and her works are included in major national and international private and public collections. Hammer Galleries had several exhibitions of her work during her lifetime, the last taking place in 1975 when the artist was one hundred years old.