Green Café with White Pillars

Signed lower right. Illustrated in "Martha Walter: Impressionist Jewels".
Complemented by a hand carved and gilt frame.

Martha Walter (1875-1976)
Born in Philadelphia in 1875, Martha Walter attended Girls High School followed by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. It was at the Academy, over a century ago, that Walter’s artistic talent was discovered. An admiring instructor by the name of William Merritt Chase took young Martha under his wing, giving her both inspiration and direction. She enrolled with Chase at his summer school in Shinnecock, Long Island, and in 1903, was awarded the Cresson Traveling Scholarship by the Pennsylvania Academy. This sent Martha Walter on travels to France, Italy, Spain and Holland. She attended the Grand Chaumiere and the the Academie Julian in Paris. Afterwards she established a studio in the Rue De Bagneaux with several other American women artists. In1909 Walter won the Mary Smith Prize from the Academy for a portrait she had painted in Europe. At the onset of World War I , Martha returned home and began painting plein-air subjects such as Ellis Island, the fishing village of Gloucester, scenes of cheerful children, and the quintessential American beach scenes which have brought her national acclaim.

Throughout her life, Walter continued to travel with great regularity capturing in oil and watercolor a wealth of landscapes and cultures across the globe. Martha lived a charmed life keeping addresses in New York City, suburban Philadelphia and Gloucester while frequently traveling abroad. In her later years she had become reclusive, not wanting to be disturbed by galleries and museums. After 1945, Martha spent most of her time in Huntingdon Valley and Glenside, Pennsylvania, where she enjoyed painting flowers from her garden. She never married and lived to the age of one hundred and one.

Martha Walter exhibited widely throughout her career both nationally as well as internationally, and was the recipient of many prestigious awards. Her work is in the collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Terra Museum, the Woodmere Art Museum, the Cheekwood Museum in Tennessee, the Toledo Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Musee d' Orsay in Paris, the Musee Du Luxembourg, the Detroit Institute of Art, and the Milwaukee Art Center among others.

Source: New Hope for American Art by James M. Alterman