painter, came to Victoria in the 1860s, having left his wife Agneta and daughter in Schleswig Holstein in 1864 at the onset of the German-Danish war. In Victoria, he lived with Irish-born Sarah Egan and they had a son. The family settled in Bairnsdale and stayed in Melbourne regularly. Between 1880 and 1900 Walter mostly exhibited bush scenes with the Vics (the Victorian Academy of Arts and its later manifestation, the Victorian Artists’ Society). He married Sarah after Agneta came out and divorced him in 1882. In 1885 he ran an art union of his paintings at Bairnsdale. He was the first art master at the Bairnsdale School of Mines in 1893. After Sarah died, he married for the third time, Lucy Walker who was aged 22 while he was 57. He is buried in Bairnsdale Cemetery.
Seehusen’s Morning near Bairnsdale 1875 is in Bairnsdale Secondary College. Wendy Miller had documented about 20 other works by August 1999 and was planning to hold a retrospective at Bairnsdale’s Nicholson Street Gallery in October-November 2000. One of his paintings was auctioned by Christie’s London in 1973; about 6 others are listed in Australian Art Sales Digest .
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- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 1989
