Lionel Walden (May 22, 1862[1]–1933) was an American painter active in Hawaii, Cornwall, and France.

Biography

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He was born in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1862. He first became interested in art in Minnesota, where the family moved when his father Treadwell[1] became rector of an Episcopal Church there. As a young man, Walden moved to Paris, where he studied painting with Carolus-Duran. In around 1893–97, Walden was in England, living in Falmouth. Paintings of Cardiff in Wales are in museums in Cardiff, Paris,[2] and Abu Dhabi.[3] Walden received medals from the Paris Salon and was made a Knight of the French Legion of Honor. He visited Hawaii in 1911 and several times thereafter. Walden died in Chantilly, France in 1933.

According to David H. Forbes, author of Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778–1941, Lionel Walden "was the finest seascape painter to work in Hawaii". The Brooklyn Museum, the Henry Art Gallery (University of Washington, Seattle), the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Isaacs Art Center (Waimea, Hawaii), the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Quimper and the Musée d'Orsay are among the public collections holding works by Lionel Walden.

Notable works

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The auction record for a painting by Lionel Walden is $73,440. This record was set by Breaking Waves, a 24 by 51.5 inch oil painting on canvas sold March 2, 2007, at Skinner Inc. (Marlborough, Massachusetts).[4]

A painting by Walden, "The Wave" (1908) is since 2015 in the collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Quimper (France), (don d'Elisabeth Willmott et Jean-David Jumeau-Lafond en mémoire de Jean et Jacqueline Jumeau-Lafond).

Relatives

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Walden was the brother of Arthur Treadwell Walden.[5]

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b WALDEN, Lionel in Who's Who in America (1901–1902 edition), via archive.org
  2. ^ National Museum of Wales
  3. ^ Dewey, Philip (20 July 2018). "Why a painting of Cardiff hangs in world-famous art gallery". walesonline. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  4. ^ AskArt.com accessed Jan. 4, 2011
  5. ^ Lionel Walden’s far-flung kin pays a visit and shares family stories, by Travis Hancock, at the Honolulu Museum of Art; published April 2016; retrieved July 19, 2021

References

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  • Ellis, George R. and Marcia Morse, A Hawaii Treasury, Masterpieces from the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Tokyo, Asahi Shimbun, 2000, 154, 224–5.
  • Forbes, David W., Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778–1941, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1992, 206–244.
  • Forbes, David W., He Makana, The Gertrude Mary Joan Damon Haig Collection of Hawaiian Art, Paintings and Prints, Hawaii State Foundation of Culture and the Arts, 2013, pp. 64–71