Artist/Maker: Frederick Walker - Aberystwyth University School of Art Museums and Galleries

Painter and illustrator. Son of a jeweller. After having been apprenticed with London architects Messrs Baker and Harris at fifteen, he enrolled at Leigh’s Academy in 1857 and at the Royal Academy Schools in 1858. At the end of 1858, he was apprenticed with Josiah Wood Whymper (1813-1903) as well, designing woodblock illustrations. He became a member of the Langham Artists’ Society in 1859 and was linked with The Clique, an artists’ group in St. John’s Wood. From 1860 onwards, he worked as a freelance designer of black and white woodblock illustrations for magazines such as Good Words and illustrated e.g. William Makepeace Thackeray’s (1811-1863) 'The Adventures of Philip' in Cornhill Magazine. He also worked for the Dalziel brothers. Furthermore, Walker painted in oil and watercolour, creating domestic and genre scenes in urban and rural surroundings. He favoured the method of blending pigment with commercially manufactured Chinese white paint. He started exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1863 and was elected associate member of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1864. Popular paintings include The Bathers (1867) and The Old Gate (1869), which were both exhibited at the Royal Academy. In 1876, the Deschamps Gallery, New Bond Street, London, held a memorial exhibition of Walker’s works.