Dame Ethel Walker (1861-1951)

Meri Adams, c 1914

Pencil on paper

Following text taken from Brighton Museum placard:

Ethel Walker was born in Edinburgh in 1861. She studied art in London at Putney Art School and at Westminster School of Art before attending the Slade School of Fine AN for two years from 1892. Walker was influenced by Velasquez whose work she saw in 1884 while in Spain, and by the work of Manet and the Impressionists in Paris. In 1898 she settled in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, and established there a studio which she maintained for the rest of her life.

Walker did not begin exhibiting her work until she was 37, but became one of the most successful women artists of the first part of the 2Oth century. In 1900 she was elected the first woman member of the New English Art Club. She was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Academy in 1940 and appointed DBE in 1943.