Martha Walter (American, 1875 to 1976)
Born in Philadelphia in 1875, Martha Walter studied at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under the direction of William Merritt Chase, who became her primary mentor. As an acclaimed American Impressionist, she was only one of a select few female artists to consummate international recognition. Chase who had a major impact on her career, insisted she enter several competitions while under his study. She went on to win a prestigious Cresson Traveling Scholarship in 1908. Through this acclamation, she was able to travel France, Holland, Italy and Spain, where she continued her art education at the Grande Chaumiere and the Academie Julien and established her own unique plein-air French Impressionism.
With the impending onset of World War I, Martha Walter returned to her native country and settled in Gloucester. There she became renowned for her beach scenes of Gloucester, Bass Rocks, Atlantic City and Coney Island as well park scenes, gardens, portraits and marketplaces. Her treatment of light and shadow are elegantly demonstrated in all her artistically crafted figures. Her self-developed style of bold brush strokes are evidently captured in The Tea Party in this example of her colorful impressionistic work.
Martha Walter, “Master of Impressionism”, had an extraordinary talent for perpetuating the essence of nature in her colorful canvases. Her works can be found in the collections of Musee de Luxembourg, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, Detroit Institute of Arts, Milwaukee Art Center, Toledo Museum and the Woodmere Art Center, Philadelphia.
Information courtesy of Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers, April 2013.
Martha Walter studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art with William Merritt Chase. After receiving a 2 year traveling Cresson Scholarship, she left Philadelphia and traveled to France, Spain, Italy and Holland and attended the Academie Grande Chaumiere and the Academie Julian in Paris. She then established a studio in the Rue De Bagneaus and, with the start of WWI, returned to the states where she set up a studio in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Information courtesy of Swann Galleries, June 2005.