John Edward Walker
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
654 He was listed by the New York Times in 1914 as one of the dozen “notable” artists of Carmel.4 That fall his work was included in the Exhibition of Carmel and Southern California Artists at the Rabjohn & Morcom Gallery in San Francisco.5 A year later the Carmel Pine Cone reported that his paintings were selling well in that city.6 During the summer of 1916 he advertised his studio “by appointment only” at the “Schlingman Cottage” on Casanova Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues.7 He taught art to select students in Carmel, but there is no evidence that he was an instructor at the Arts and Crafts Club Summer School. In 1913 he contributed the painting Coast View to the Seventh Annual Exhibition of that Club.8 As a Carmel resident his canvas was allowed into the award competition for that year. For the Club’s Tenth Annual in 1916 he submitted four pieces: Glow at Evening, Oaks in Spring, Happy Valley and Sand Dune-Carmel. Of these Blanche Marie d’Harcourt, art critic for The Wasp of San Francisco, declared that he “interprets Nature in her most poetical moods.”9 That December she reported that this “modest young Englishman” was hard at work “painting many scenes up the Carmel Valley.”10 In May of 1917 Walker assembled fifteen of his “small and modest” Carmel seascapes for exhibition at the Kanst Gallery in Los Angeles.11 The art critic for the Los Angeles Times, Antony Anderson, found the painter to be “a trifle over-conscientious” in depicting detail, too wordy in his titles and lacking in California’s bright colors, but he praised his drawing skills and genuine emotion.12 In a similar assessment of his “oil sketches” that June at the Schussler Brothers Gallery of San Francisco Anna Cora Winchell, the art critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, observed that the British painter depicted:13 . coast and inland scenes that differ from the usual subjects chosen by artists in that region. His efforts are sincere, but he has, as yet, to catch California’s own special atmosphere – an accomplishment not easy to attain. Walker’s work savors strongly of his native land and, unless the pictures had titles, one would judge them to be English scenes. Also in June he donated his art to a benefit exhibition at William Silva’s Carmelita Art Gallery on behalf of the Carmel chapter of the American Red Cross.14 Evidently, he was listening to his critics for at the Courvoisier Gallery of San Francisco during August of 1917 his displayed work was said to employ “stronger colors.”15 He maintained his residence in Carmel until 1919 and returned in 1921 for a sketching vacation.16 In the early 1920s he moved to Los Altos. In October of 1922 a solo show of his oils was staged at the Stanford University Art Gallery.17 In February and October of the following year he exhibited at the Palo Alto Art Club where one of his works was Pleasant Hills.18 Shortly thereafter he relocated his home to Berkeley with an address at 2233 Ellsworth Street.19 At this time he gave art lessons to several students, including the future designer, Sargent Johnson.20 Between 1923 and 1925 Walker exhibited at the (California) League of Fine Arts in Berkeley; he served on its hanging committee in 1925.21 In May of that year he held a solo exhibition at the League galleries of his “regional paintings” which H. L. Dungan, art critic for The Oakland Tribune, described as “untouched by the modern movement,” but he added that the “grayness that he brought with him from England” had been replaced with “the brilliancy of California.”22 That November at the League his canvas Menlo Park was said to be more colorful than his previous work.23 In 1926 he contributed to Berkeley’s All Arts Club spring Annual at the Northbrae Community Center.24 The following January his painting Carmel Dunes was exhibited by the League of Fine Arts at Berkeley’s Twentieth Century Club.25 His ceramics, which he designed and painted for Gertrude Wall, were displayed with her collection of Wallrich porcelains at the Oakland Art Gallery in 1927.26 In March of 1929 his work appeared at the First Annual Jury-free Exhibition of the Berkeley Art Association in the new Berkeley Art Museum.27 Walker exhibited forty canvases that December at the studio-residence of T. T. Greaves in Los Altos where his scenes of Carmel and Mt. Diablo were purchased by visitors from San Francisco and the Peninsula.28 According to the U.S. Census of 1930, he resided in a boarding house in Oakland and was not a naturalized citizen.29 He was employed as an artist by an advertising agency. To the Second Annual Jury-free Exhibition of the Berkeley Art Association in the Berkeley Art Museum he contributed two works, including one entitled Zinnias.30 His solo exhibition of paintings and ceramics in September of 1931 at Berkeley’s Casa de Mañana Gallery comprised “California landscapes and flower studies, especially zinnias, tulips and chrysanthemums. The ceramics included busts, statuettes and tiles in two clays, richly glazed.”31 The Berkeley Daily Gazette reported that his “style favors the English School, being conservative, restrained, in good keeping and having a fine sense of color . [in] the picturesque coast of rocks and wind-blown cypress of Monterey, the blue sea of Carmel, mountains and trees from around Los Altos.”32 To the Fourth Annual Jury-free Exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum in March of 1932 he contributed several sculptures.33 That September he was listed as a Berkeley artist when he displayed his well-received Blue JOHN EDWARD WALKER (1876-1940?) was born in Wales Mountains at the Jury-free Exhibition in the Oakland Art Gallery.34 In April and studied drawing and painting in London at the Lambeth and of 1934 his canvas at the Annual Exhibition of the Oakland Art Gallery was Hammersmith Schools where he was associated with Reginald Frampton voted by the contributing artists as one of the twenty best pictures in the and Windsor Fry.1 His work appeared at the Whitechapel Art Gallery and show and was selected for the post-annual exhibition.35 His “one-man at the Japan-British Empire Exhibition. He immigrated to the United States show” in December of 1934 at the Frances Webb Galleries of Los Angeles in 1911 and came to California shortly thereafter.2 By 1913 he had a home was characterized by the Los Angeles Times art critic Arthur Millier as in Carmel. His guests in Carmel and visits with his sister in the San “genuine poetry and charming color. He paints trees as one who loves Francisco Bay Area were dutifully monitored in the local society pages.3 them.”36 At this venue he also displayed his glazed pottery, small busts 655 and decorative tiles. Concurrently, his work appeared at Royar’s Gallery. she also exhibited Arching Sycamore and Paradise Valley.19 In late May of During July of 1936 his one-man show in Beverly Hills was reviewed by 1928 she wrote in the Pine Cone a defense of the CAA policy to host only Phyllis R. Brown, art critic for the Beverly Hills Star-News, who observed jury-free exhibitions.20 That December the Pine Cone praised her “beautiful that his landscapes and marines were painted “with the weight of tradition pen and ink drawings of familiar lanes, gardens and charming doorways.”21 in mind, not worshipping at the shrine of Van Gogh and Gauguin, whom he For the Seventeenth CAA Exhibition in June of 1932 she displayed and believes to be greatly overrated.”37 Reliable information on his life after sold her Spring Blossoms.22 1936 is presently lacking.38 By 1930 she was a Stockton resident and taught arts and crafts ENDNOTES FOR WALKER: 1. LAT, May 27, 1917, p.3-20; DPT, October 14, at the local University of the Pacific.23 She apparently lived on campus and 1922, p.2; CPC, July 24, 1936, p.13. / 2. TOT, May 10, 1925, p.6-S. / 3. CPC: June 9, gave her address in 1936-38 as Thalia Hall.24 In June of 1936 her work 1915, p.4; June 16, 1915, p.4; August 18, 1915, p.4; September 8, 1915, p.4; December was exhibited at the Old White Art Colony in West Virginia.25 She returned 20, 1916, p.4; May 31, 1917, p.4; November 1, 1917, p.1. / 4. NYT, February 1, 1914, to the CAA Gallery in September of 1944 with a landscape.26 Miss Ward p.M-15. / 5. SFC: September 13, 1914, p.28; October 18, 1914, p.17. / 6. CPC, 27 October 6, 1915, p.4. / 7. CPC: June 7, 1916, p.2; June 21, 1916, p.3; July 26, 1916, retired to her home in Morgan Hill where she died on April 27, 1970. p.3. / 8. Appendix 2. / 9. TWP, July 8, 1916, p.10. / 10. TWP, December 30, 1916, ENDNOTES FOR WARD: 1. U.S. Census of 1880 [ED Monroe, Sheet 36]. / 2. p.11. / 11. CPC, April 19, 1917, p.2. / 12. LAT, May 27, 1917, p.3-20. / 13. SFC, U.S. Census of 1900 [ED 68, Sheet 9B]. / 3. SFL, May 27, 1902, p.5. / 4. SFL, June 10, 1917, p.23. / 14. CPC, June 14, 1917, p.3. / 15. TWP, August 4, 1917, p.11. September 14, 1902, p.18. / 5.