The British artist Frederick Walker (1840-1875) began his career as an illustrator in the 1860s, making designs for leading wood engravers, including the Dalziel Brothers, which were published in magazines such as Cornhill and Good Words. He abandoned illustration in the middle of the decade to concentrate on watercolour and oil painting, establishing a strong reputation as a painter of scenes of rural life which drew favourable comparisons during his lifetime with the work of Jean-François Millet. Although his career was cut short by death of tuberculosis at the age of 35, his work proved influential on the next generation of British artists.


The present print, an etching by Ernest Stamp after a watercolour by Walker titled ‘A Rainy Day at Bisham, Berks’ (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. 37-1892), was made two decades after the artist’s death. It is a fine impression, with the etching needle skilfully used to capture the atmosphere of a rainy day and to translate the subtleties of Walker’s watercolour technique into black and white. The fact that this impression was exhibited at the Royal Academy shortly after it was produced attests to the admiration with which it met in its own time.

Julian Hartnoll, his sale, Holloway’s, Banbury, 21 February 2012, part of lot 54 (2 in lot)