Walter Marshall Clute was a native of Schnectady, New York, and studied at the Art Students League of New York and with Constant and Laurens in Paris.  He was a staff artist for the Chicago Daily News during the Spanish-American War. Beginning in the summer of 1910, Frederick Fursman and Clute began holding art classes in Saugatuck, Michigan, using the Riverside Rest Hotel as their headquarters.  Most of their students were also enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago.  He worked as an instructor there through 1914.  As an artist he was known for both his landscapes and domestic scenes.  He exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1898 to 1914.  A number of works, specifically in 1903 and 1913, noted as being from the Saugatuck area.

He died February 13, 1915, in an accident at North Cucamonga, California.

Source:
Biographical information from the exhibition:  Painting the Town: A History of Art in Saugatuck and Douglas, The Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society, Douglas, Michigan.   1997

Submitted by Edward Bentley, researcher from Lansing, Michigan