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Christian Jacob Walter was born in 1872 in Old Allegheny (the North Side of Pittsburgh). His interest in art developed when he was still a school boy, he never had formal art training, and was self-taught. Early on he showed an awareness of impressionism, which can be seen in the Steidle Collection's five oil sketches by Walter. Unloading Coal Barges, Along the Allegheny River, Union Station, Scene on the Monongahela River, and Old Oil Derrick, Titusville, reveal his interest in the loose brushwork and thick impasto associated with the impressionist style. Walter's large-scale works, particularly the three paintings entitled Oil Refinery, show a blending of impressionism with the simplified aspects of the American Precisionist school of the 1920s and 1930s, such as the work of Charles Sheeler. Walter had a long and successful career and exhibited widely. In 1896 his work was included in the first Carnegie International, and later he exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Art Club, and the Society of Western Artists. He participated in all the annual shows of the Associated artists of Pittsburgh, from the first one through his last in 1938, as well as in various Carnegie Internationals. For most of his life he resided in Avalon along the Ohio River and maintained a studio in the Penn Building in downtown Pittsburgh. He often taught classes in his studio, and in the summer he taught classes in Ligonier and the surrounding mountains. An active participant in the Pittsburgh art scene, he was elected president of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh in 1922, a position he would hold for 16 years to the time of his death. Walter was also one of the organizers of the Art Brotherhood of Pittsburgh, and from 1936 to 1938 he directed the local division of the Federal Art Project for painters, sculptors and craftsmen. A letter has come to light recently that dates to the time Walter worked for the FAP. In October 1935, Holger Cahill, Director of the Federal Art Project, wrote to Mary Curran, Director of the Pennsylvania Federal Art Project in Philadelphia, concerning a letter he had received from Christian Walter. It appears that a request had been made by Edward Steidle that Walter paint a series of murals at the Pennsylvania State College. While the murals were never carried out, this does point to the interest Steidle had in Walter, and the high opinion he had of the artist's work. At the Associated Artists 27th annual exhibition in 1937, Walter was awarded the Carnegie Institute Prize for the best group of paintings for his three works, Moonlight, Pennsylvania Hills, and Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh was later presented to the Steidle Collection by the Works Progress Administration. In his review of the show, Edmund M. Ashe, head of the Department of Painting and Design at Carnegie Tech, described Pittsburgh: "The third picture of the group, a familiar enough mill-town scene, shows broader vision, a striving for something more than effect. The depth is obtained not alone by perspective, but by so composing space that the variety of forms, each and every one, takes its proper distance from the observer. The golden sunlight sifting through the haze and smoke is naturalistic and convincing. It is a good picture and should make friends." Christian Walter died February 26, 1938, at age 66 after an emergency operation. He was honored with a retrospective exhibition of 75 of his paintings at the Craft Avenue Associated Artists Gallery in November of that year, and in February 1939, a memorial exhibition was held at the Carnegie Museum of Art. The Associated Artists of Pittsburgh honored their longtime president by establishing the Christian J. Walter Prize, a prize awarded for outstanding landscape painting. Christian Walter's subject matter focused on landscapes, industrial scenes and groups of workmen in various industries. He was particularly sensitive to scenes in and around Pittsburgh, and the mountains of western Pennsylvania, although he also made trips to the sun-lit beaches of Florida. He also painted scenes of the South and some landscapes in Ohio. Walter is quoted by Paul Chew as saying: "It is a mistake for artists of this district to leave the environs of Pittsburgh to seek material for landscape painting. To my mind no other place in the world has the wealth of material that can be found right here at home...The hills are high, but not too lofty. They do not leave one cold and without inspiary. At the time of his death, his good friend Earl Crawford (who is also represented in the Steidle Collection) wrote: "In the passing of Christ Walter, western Pennsylvania has lost its best known artist. He had encouragement for all. His own work was never too pressing for him to stop and help others. I wish his old friend, George Luks, could write a line about him. George used to stay a day longer in Pittsburgh to be with Christ." Christian J. Walter's work is included in the collections of Mellon Bank Corp., Pittsburgh; the John Vanderpoel Art Association, Chicago; the Pittsburgh Board of Education; the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Art Museum; and the Westmoreland County Museum of Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Sources: National Archives, Washington, D.C. RG 69, Federal Art Project, Entry 564: "Correspondence of State Representatives" (1935-36), Box 32 (Pennsylvania Files). Ashe, Edmund M., "Pittsburgh's Best," Carnegie Magazine, vol. 10, February 1937, pp. 257, 273-280. Obituary, Art Digest, vol. 12, March 15, 1938, p.7. Brignano, Mary. The Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, 1910-1985: The First Seventy-Five Years. Pittsburgh: Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, 1985. Chew, Paul A. Southwestern Pennsylvania Painters. Greensburg: Westmoreland County Museum of Art, 1989. Falk, Peter Hastings, ed. Who Was Who In American Art. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1985. This document copyright © 1996, Eric John Schruers |