Henry Oliver Walker  (1843 - 1929)

i have a Chloe
KoI have a Clhoe that I can remember hanging in our house since I was young. My mother was a lover of art. She has past away and it is the only thing I from her. Just curious as to its history. No intention of selling.
Would appreciate info.

It has what what looks like a typewritter imprint of 'HENRY O WALKER' at top. Please contact if you know anything. Would like to talk about it

S

Henry Oliver Walker
I am researching two pastel drawings by Henry Oliver Walker-does anyone know any information on his pastels?

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel
The Boston Art Club first exhibited a painting of Henry's in 1884, and since then we have been a prime promoter of H.O. Walker.

For those of you who have Walkers in your collection, the Club is in charge of cataloguing his Art (Catalogue Raisonne).

We are very concerned with finding out where Jacob has gone, and we are also researching the disappearence of the painting from the Lakewood NJ Library (it was there not too long ago).

If anyone has questions about the Artist or his works, please do not hesitate to contact the Club.

re: Alma Gilbert & website
Alma, thanks for that information. It seems as though a lot of institutions around the country have some Walker works in their collections but so few promote that fact. One day perhaps his reputation will be such that they make the existence of such paintings known. ;)

Also, we are obviously not allowed to post web links (as I did so in an earlier post and it was removed), but I have created a Henry Oliver Walker website that you are all invited to visit. While I cannot post the web address here, it is the most obvious one there could possibly be -- so think about it;)

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel
I would like to make a correction on the e-mail sent my me 8-3-07. The census year was 1920, not 1930, when H O Walker lived in Lakewood, N J. Since the posting I have received a printed copy of "Jacob Wrestling with the Angel" from the President of the Boston Art Club and the report from Mark Potter. I will continue to try to locate the painting with the Township of Lakewood, N J.
Sylvia

Henry Oliver Walker
There are five very beautiful Henry Oliver Walker paintings on display at the Cornish Colony Museum, in Windsor, VT including Gift Bearer, that won the 1893 Columbian Exposition award.

His work is usually on display either here or at the Boston Art Club.

He will also be featured during the National Cornish Colony Exposition sponsored by the Trust for Museum Exhibitions (TME) in 2009-2010.

Henry Oliver Walker
Thank you for that wonderful information, Mark. Earlier this year I wrote an extended biography of Walker and put together a website devoted to his life and work.

One thing in particular that I knew very little about were his children. I knew he had two, but I had no idea of their identities. I may have to update my biography now, thanks to you. Also, if you have any information on his earlier life I would love to hear it-- such as, before he traveled to France to study under Leon Bonnat. I was unable to find anything of Walker's upbringing.

Also, I would absolutely flip to see the Walker paintings that you own. I have one myself, which sparked my interest in researching the artist. I've contacted institutions across the country to see as many examples as I possibly can. I've assembled pictures of as many solid examples as I could find and placed them on my Walker website... though there are very few.

Please feel free to contact me at my email address by clicking my name above. I would love to talk to you further.

-C. Wys

Henry Oliver Walker
Henry Oliver Walker
By: Mark Potter

I’m glad to see interest in the works of H.O.Walker. I have at least 10 of his paintings, several of his son Marquand Walker, and a couple also with his wife Laura Marquand Walker. They also had another son, Oliver. Laura was the daughter of John P. Marquand and Laura Wheelwright Wood Marquand.

Henry and Laura were married in 1888 and rented a residence of a friend that first summer in Cornish, New Hampshire.

During the first year of their marriage (summer of 1888) a small French Canadian Boy named Johnny Sevigne moved in with them in Cornish and became Henry’s model and house helper. It was that year that Henry rented a donkey and painted the magnificent painting “Johnny and the Donkey” (private collection, Ma.).

As winter approached, Mr. and Mrs. H.O. Oliver moved into a rooftop apartment on 42nd Street in New York City. They survived the infamous winter of’88.

The following summer, they returned to Cornish, NH where Henry began painting his wonderful “Gift Bearer” and “Girl with Flowers” oil paintings using the same female model in each. They bought 16 acres of pasture and woodlands from money given to them by Laura’s father. Later they added an additional 5 acres with a rushing brook and huge pines on its bank and rocks with little waterfalls. They built a house with a fine view of Mount Ascutney and the river.

On May 30, 1890, their first son John Marquand (called Marq) was born named by request after Laura’s father. Their second son, Oliver was born in 1892 in a new apartment for the winter at the corner of Boulevard (now Broadway) and 61st street, New York, New York.

Henry would sometime leave the family to paint portraits in Boston. But is was Cornish during the summer months that Henry had his art friends over and was in his best element. The group of artists became known as the Cornish Artist Colony.

Henry used Laura and particularly his oldest son Marq (as he was called) as models. Marq is in or the subject of at least 8 paintings from my personal collections (Texas) and others as well. Though ill-stricken, his youngest son Oliver was artistically inclined and wrote music and also painted to a limited degree.

Henry continued painting and belonged to the American Academy National, Arts and Letters, Society of American Artists, the National Society of Mural Painters, and the National Academy of Design. Through these professional organizations and his membership in private clubs, he made many contacts and good friends with healthy commissions.

In 1983, he received a medal at the Columbia Exposition of Chicago and in 1894 the Shaw Fund Prize for his painting, “The Singers”. In 1895, he received the Clark Prize for “Morning Vision” and a Prize at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo. He received a Gold Medal at the Charleston, South Carolina Expo in 1902 and a Silver Medal at the Saint Louis Exposition in 1904, and third prize at Worchester Massachusetts in 1907. His best wall decorations are at the Apellate Court building in New York where he painted the middle decoration, “The Wisdom of the Law”, in the Massachusetts and Minnesota State Capitol Buildings, and the fabulous murals at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., completed in 1897.

Henry Oliver Walker was one of only 10 artists commissioned to decorate the newly constructed Appellate Courts Building in New York City which was designed by architect James Brown Lord. He was also commissioned to decorate Memorial Hall at the Boston State House and his Panels “Pilgrims on the Mayflower”, and “John Eliot Preaching to the Indians” were both completed in 1903.

During his lifetime, Henry had many exhibitions of his paintings. A review in the Boston Transcript following the opening of his exhibit of fifteen paintings at The Doll and Richard’s Gallery was particularly favorable. The reviewer defined him as a “most artistic and charming painter of ideal subjects, with a Raphaelesque refinement and purity of style and simplicity of sentiment”. Some of the paintings exhibited were “Pandora”, “Philomela”, Echo”, “Fortune and the Boy”, “Hagar and Ishmael”, and “David”. Of these paintings the reviewer wrote “These pictures are so essentially ornamental and beautiful in and by themselves, that it is really of small account what they are called. Mr. Walker is a painter first and an artist afterwards. The delicate and pure beauty of his forms and color s embody ideas of equal and constant beauty; and the poetry of his conception is worthy of the admirable and scholarly workmanship he gives to it. There are few artists of whom this can be said”.
By 1906 Henry Oliver Walker had achieved significant stature and was well respected by his peers – the most valued prize any artist can attain.

Side note - Marq Walker was active in the US military during both World Wars, won many military honors and served as the Allied Military Governor of Italy.

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel
According to the 1930 Census H O Walker 76,lived on First Street in Lakewood, N J.along with wife Laura, written Lora, 62, son Oliver 27. While doing genealogy research on the John W C Adams family of Lakewood,I learned that his son, George H. Adams was a model for H O Walker, but died in 1921 at the age of 24 after a short illness. Quoting from the Lakewood Citizen, Aug. 26, 1921,obituary of G H Adams,a student at Brown University, living in Lakewood, "Being of splendid physique, Mr. H. O Walker had several times used him as a model and one picture for which he posed in connection with Jug Brown, "Jacob Wrestling with the Angel," is now hanging in the Lakewood Public Library." I am now trying to locate the painting through the Township of Lakewood. I would truly appreciate any help you can give me, such as a copy of the painting in a book, or any history of the painting.
I have the graduation picture of George Henry Adams from Brown.
Sylvia

re: Joe, henry o walker print "Chloe"
Hi Joe,
Any information on H. O. Walker is scarce, to say the least. I am an art history student and I plan to research and analyze his work very in-depth in the future. Suffice it to say, I've done a great deal of research on him already and have discovered no vast amount of print work. In other words, he was primarily (or exclusively) a painter of canvas and mural paintings (on top of that, he did relatively few works in his lifetime). Any prints that have surfaced through the years are likely photogravures of his paintings - such as the one you are asking about. In fact, "Chloe" is the only instance of a Walker print I have seen for sale in recent years. I'm almost certain there are more photogravure prints of his other works floating around, though I haven't seen them.
I have not yet been successful in tracking down the whereabouts of the original "Chloe" painting that the print is after. It could very well be in a private collection or in the storage room of a museum - either way it will be difficult for anyone to track down. Several of Walker's works are held in museums across the United States, and many of his works continue to be held in private collections.
There is a painting titled "Wood Nymph," owned by the National Academy of Design in New York City, that looks stunningly similar to "Chloe." The two compositions are nearly the same with a non-descript landscape, a nude woman draped with a piece of material, her hair done up, with her back slightly turned so as to hide her face. But, obviously, the two paintings are not exactly the same.
Photogravures are among the most inexpensive and common types of antique and modern prints. They are, quite simply, printed photographic reproductions of an existing work - unlike etchings which become an original type of artwork all their own. I've seen the "Chloe" print sell for as little as $10, unfortunately. I haven't had the chance to examine the print myself so I cannot offer an approximate age of its publication. However, I would be willing to offer a guess that the prints were originally published in the early 20th-century, or possibly the 1920's, around the time that Walker died.
Hope this helps a little,
C. Wys

henry o walker prints
can anyone give me information on a henry o walker print "CHLOE". Also has stamped Potogravure Goupil & Co. D.Appleton & Co. New York