Martha Walter 1875-1976

Beach Scene (Coney Island) is a fine example of Martha Walter’s light-hearted, colorful harbor and beach scenes, for which she became best known. Her ability to capture the animation of the light and the energy of the movement is amply evident here. Walter alternates between using loose and staccato-like brushwork to depict the figures of the many seaside bathers who are dotted along the edge of the beach and more fluid strokes of paint to capture the ebb and flow of the ocean waves lapping against the shore. Her palette of light blues is brilliantly complemented by dots of red and green, giving the scene a lively almost cheery quality.

Martha Walter was a well-known Philadelphia Impressionist. She is most famous for her depictions of Gloucester, Massachusetts, Coney Island, Atlantic City, and the French Coast. Walter studied with William Merritt Chase at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She received the Cresson Scholarship, which allowed her to travel for two years, visiting France, Spain, Italy, and Holland. While in Paris she attended the Academie Grande Chaumiere and the Academie Julian. However, she found the academy structure too confining and instead set-up her own studio in the Rue de Bagneaus.

With the advent of World War I she returned to the United States and established a studio in Gloucester, where she painted beach scenes. She also became intrigued with Ellis Island and painted people as they arrived in ethnic costume from their countries of origin.

Walter exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the National Association for Women Painters. Her work is among the collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Norfolk Society of Artists, the Milwaukee Art Institute, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Luxembourg Museum, Paris.