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See also: English subject painter, the son of a designer of jewelry, was See also: born in Marylebone, See also: London, on the 24th of May 184o
.
When very See also: young he began to draw from the See also: antique in the See also: British Museum, and at the age of sixteen he was placed in the office of an architect named See also: Baker
.
The occupation proved uncongenial; at the end of eighteen months he resumed his See also: work from the See also: Elgin See also: marbles at the British Museum, and attended See also: Leigh's See also: life school in Newman Street
.
In See also: March 1858 he was admitted a student of the Royal
See also: Academy
.
But his study in the academy See also: schools was disconnected, and ceased before he reached the life class, as he was anxious to begin earning his own living
.
As a means to this end, he turned his See also: attention to designing for the See also: wood-engravers, and worked three days a week for about two years in the studio of J
.
W
.
Whyrnper, under whose tuition he quickly mastered the technicalities of See also: drawing on wood
.
His earliest See also: book illustrations appeared in 186o in Once a Week, a periodical to which he was a prolific contributor, as also to the Cornhill See also: Magazine, where his admirable designs appeared to the See also: works of Thackeray and those of his daughter
.
These woodcuts, especially his illustrations to Thackeray's Adventures of See also: Philip and Denis Duval, are among the most spirited and
See also: artistic works of their class, and entitle See also: Walker to
See also: rank with Millais at the very See also: head of the draughtsmen who have dealt with scenes of contemporary life
.
Indeed, by his contributions to Once a Week alone he made an immediate reputation as an artist of rare accomplishment, and although he was associated on that periodical with such men as Millais, See also: Holman See also: Hunt, See also: Leech, Sandys, See also: Charles Keene,
See also: Tenniel, and Du Maurier, he more than held his own against all competitors
.
In the intervals of work as a book illustrator he practised See also: painting in See also: water-See also: colours, his subjects being frequently more considered and refined repetitions in colour of his blackand-See also: white designs
.
Among the more notable of his productions in water-colour are " Spring," " A Fishmonger'sSee also: Shop," " The See also: Ferry," and " Philip in See also: Church," which gained a medal in the
See also: Paris See also: International See also: Exhibition of 1867
.
He was elected an associate of the Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1864 and a full member in 1866; and in 1871 he became an associate of the Royal Academy
.
In this same See also: year he was made an honorary member of the Belgian Society of Painters in Water Colours
.
His first oil picture, " The Lost Path," was exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1863, where it was followed in 1867 by " The Bathers," one of the artist's finest works, in 1868 by " The Vagrants," now in the See also: National Gallery of British See also: Art, in 1869 by " The Old See also: Gate," and in 18so by " The Plough," a powerful and impressive rendering of ruddy evening See also: light, of which the landscape was studied in See also: Somerset
.
In 1871 he exhibited his tragic life-sized figure of " A See also: Female Prisoner at the See also: Bar," a subject which now exists only in a finished oil study, for the painter afterwards effaced the head, with which he was dissatisfied, but was prevented by See also: death from again completing the picture
.
The last of his fully successful works was " A Harbour of See also: Refuge," shown in 1872 (also in the National Gallery of British Art); for " The Right of Way," exhibited in 1875, bears evident signs of the artist's failing strength
.
He-WALKER, G
.
.27J
had suffered indeed for some years from a consumptive tendency; in 1868 he made a See also: sea voyage, for his See also: health's See also: sake, to Venice; where he stayed with Orchardson and Birket See also: Foster, and at the end of 1873 he went for a while to Algiers with J
.
W
.
See also: North, in the hope that he might derive benefit from a change of See also: climate
.
But, returning in the bitter English spring, he was again prostrated; and on the 5th of See also: June 1875 he died of See also: consumption at St See also: Fillan's, See also: Perthshire
.
The works of See also: Frederick Walker are thoroughly See also: original and individual, both in the quality of their colour and handling and in their view of nature and humanity
.
His colour, especially in his water-colours, is distinctive, powerful and full of delicate gradations . He had an admirable sense of design, and the figures of his peasants at their daily toil show aSee also: grace and sweeping largeness of See also: line in which can be plainly traced the effect produced upon his taste by his early study of the antique; at the same See also: time the sentiment of his subjects is unfailingly refined and poetic
.
His vigour of design may be seen in his See also: poster for See also: Wilkie See also: Collins's The Woman in White, now in the National Gallery of British Art
.
See Life and Letters of Frederick Walker, A.R.A., by See also: John
See also: George Marks (1896), a full biography of a See also: personal rather than a critical kind
.
Frederick Walker and his Works, by See also: Claude See also: Phillips (1897), should be consulted as an excellent critical supplement to the larger See also: volume
.
See also Essays on Art, by J
.
Comyns Carr, which includes a judicious essay on Walker
.
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