Martha Walter

(American, 1875-1976)

Bathing by the Biarritz Rock

oil on board

signed Martha Walter (upper left); signed again and titled (verso)

14 7/8 x 18 inches.

This lot is located in Philadelphia.

Provenance:

Private Collection, Pennsylvania

Lot Note:

Martha Walter first traveled to France in 1908, after receiving the prestigious Cresson Traveling Scholarship from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, which funded two full years of study and travel across Europe. During this period she lived in Paris, studying at the Académie Julian and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, but she quickly moved beyond the academies to paint directly from life.

While traveling along the French coast, she discovered the seaside resorts of St.-Malo, Deauville, Trouville, as well as Biarritz in the south-west Basque country, where she produced luminous beach scenes that would become one of her most recognizable subjects, as exemplified here.

Her early French beach paintings, often depicting elegantly dressed women and children beneath parasols and striped tents, marked the origin of her celebrated beach imagery. When World War I broke out in 1914, Walter returned to the United States, but she continued the theme, painting similar scenes at Coney Island, Atlantic City, and Gloucester, Massachusetts.

Framed: 23 x 26 x 2 in.
The painting has signs of restoration and inpainting under UV light. There is a large area, approx. 10 in. high, at left that appears to have been restored. There are scattered areas of inpainting at the top in the sky and in the water at center. There are a few small areas of surface loss, for instance at center in the green and at the top right in the clouds. Additional images available upon request.

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Adrianne Wolkenberg

Specialist, Fine Art

[email protected]267.414.1252

Adrianne Wolkenberg joined Freeman's in 2019 as Business Manager for the Fine Arts Department and began as Cataloguer for Modern and Contemporary Art the following year.

She previously coordinated care and logistics for a prominent private contemporary art collection for 15 years, while also performing research for special exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

She has authored several articles on modern and contemporary art in exhibition catalogues including Cézanne and Beyond and Embracing the Contemporary: The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Collection, both published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Wolkenberg holds a master's degree in modern art from Columbia University and graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University, where she studied the history of art.

Women’s Work

Bathing by the Biarritz Rock

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