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Walter Greaves

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Walter Greaves (1846 - 1930) was active/lived in United Kingdom.  Walter Greaves is known for Painter, etcher.

The following is from Peter Kostoulakos, AOA, NEAA: Fine Art Consultant, www.pkart.com

Walter Greaves - painter and etcher - was born in London on July 4,1846 and died there on November 23,1930. He created works of English life as etchings and in oils, watercolors, pencil, pen and ink, and wash. While training as a shipwright (one that builds or repairs ships) and waterman in Chelsea, under his father, Charles Greaves, Walter developed his artistic skills by sketching and painting river scenes in his spare time. Walter had a brother Henry, also an artist, and two sisters, Eliza and Alice "Tinnie" Fay. Both sisters modeled for them.

Along with his brother Henry, Walter created many detailed and naturalistic street, river, and cityscapes of England. They studied life drawing with M. Barthe at Limerston Street in Chelsea where they met James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) in 1863. Walter was captivated by Whistler's artistic style and way of life. The Greaves brothers   ...  [Displaying 1000 of 2711 characters.]  Artist bio

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Similar artists

.  There are 24 similar (related) artists for Walter Greaves available:    Mervyn Laurence Peake,  Dante Gabriel Rossetti,  Alfred Frederick William Hayward,  Elizabeth Adela Armstrong Stanhope Forbes,  Francis Owen Salisbury,  Wyndham Lewis,  Jacob (Sir) Epstein,  James Jacques Joseph Tissot,  Roger Elliot Fry,  Conroy Maddox,  Josef Herman,  Frank Owen Dobson,  Paul Nash,  George Frederic Watts,  Theophile Alexandre Steinlen,  Daniel Turner,  Rowland Suddaby,  Duncan James Corrow Grant,  Frank Brangwyn,  John Banting,  Augustus Edwin John,  Eliot Hodgkin,  Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone,  Edward Brian Seago



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Facts about Walter Greaves

   Walter Greaves  Born:  1846 - London, England
Died:   1930 - London, England
Known for:  Painter, etcher

Biography from the Archives of askART

The following is from Peter Kostoulakos, AOA, NEAA: Fine Art Consultant, www.pkart.com

Walter Greaves - painter and etcher - was born in London on July 4,1846 and died there on November 23,1930. He created works of English life as etchings and in oils, watercolors, pencil, pen and ink, and wash. While training as a shipwright (one that builds or repairs ships) and waterman in Chelsea, under his father, Charles Greaves, Walter developed his artistic skills by sketching and painting river scenes in his spare time. Walter had a brother Henry, also an artist, and two sisters, Eliza and Alice "Tinnie" Fay. Both sisters modeled for them.

Along with his brother Henry, Walter created many detailed and naturalistic street, river, and cityscapes of England. They studied life drawing with M. Barthe at Limerston Street in Chelsea where they met James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) in 1863. Walter was captivated by Whistler's artistic style and way of life. The Greaves brothers developed a friendship with Whistler and served as his assistants and pupils. Walter Greaves recalled, "We used to get ready his colours and canvasses, prepare the grey distemper ground which he so liked working upon, and painted the mackerel-back pattern on the frames."

Walter's friendship with Whistler ended sometime in the early 1880s when Joseph Pennell, Whistler's friend and biographer, damaged his reputation by accusations of Whistler painting some of his canvases. Many of Greaves later works, unlike his crude early work, share a style peculiar to Whistler.

According to the Centre For Whistler Studies, Walter spent many years in neglect and poverty. He was re-discovered by William Marchant, proprietor of the Goupil Galleries, who put on an exhibition of his work in 1911. But after Pennell's accusations, the final eight years of Greaves life were spent as a Poor Brother of the Charterhouse.

Walter Greaves exhibited in London at the Grosvenor Gallery and the Goupil Galleries, as well as at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and Manchester City Art Gallery.

His work is in the collections of the Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell, MA; the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA; the Cleveland Museum of Art in OH; the Tate Gallery in London; the National Portrait Gallery in London; the Museum of London, UK; the Courtauld Institute, UK; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
References: Davenport's Art Reference, Gold Edition 2004, page 877; Center for Whistler Studies, University of Glasgow, Scotland; Offer Waterman & Company, United Kingdom; Museum of London; and the International Fine Print Dealers Association.


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