Lionel Walden - brother of Arthur Walden
Courtesy of the Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy
Considered the “supreme interpreter of the Hawaiian seas,” Lionel Walden (1861-1933) first traveled to the islands on the invitation of Honolulu artist Kimo Wilder in 1911. Entranced with Hawaii's colorful landscapes and shores, Walden split each year thereafter between Hawaii and France. He arrived an accomplished figure in the salons of Paris, where he won numerous medals and was inducted to the French Legion of Honor. An enthusiastic member of the Hawaiian Society of Arts, Walden frequently exhibited in group shows and collaborated with other prominent artists, including D. Howard Hitchcock and William Twigg-Smith, to execute murals for public buildings and expositions.
In April 1912, Walden returned to France, but he spent half his time (and more during the First World War) in the islands thereafter. While many of his peers were obsessed with Hawaiian landscapes, Walden preferred the ocean in "all its moods, colors, and actions." He is particularly famous for his paintings of stormy seas. Still, although he specialized in seascapes, Walden continued to produce landscape and volcano scenes. For a number of years, he also gave private lessons. In July 1933, Walden died in Chantilly, France, from injuries suffered in a fall.
Along with Hitchcock and Madge Tennent, Lionel Walden is considered one of the three "giants" of Hawaiian art.
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Lionel Walden (1861-1933) was an American painter active in Hawaii, Cornwall, and France.
He was born in Norwich, Connecticut in 1861. He first became interested in art in Minnesota, where the family moved when his father 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,[1] and Abu Dhabi.[2] 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.
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).[3]
A very beautiful 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). Wikipedia
Considered the “supreme interpreter of the Hawaiian seas,” Lionel Walden (1861-1933) first traveled to the islands on the invitation of Honolulu artist Kimo Wilder in 1911. Entranced with Hawaii's colorful landscapes and shores, Walden split each year thereafter between Hawaii and France. He arrived an accomplished figure in the salons of Paris, where he won numerous medals and was inducted to the French Legion of Honor. An enthusiastic member of the Hawaiian Society of Arts, Walden frequently exhibited in group shows and collaborated with other prominent artists, including D. Howard Hitchcock and William Twigg-Smith, to execute murals for public buildings and expositions.
In April 1912, Walden returned to France, but he spent half his time (and more during the First World War) in the islands thereafter. While many of his peers were obsessed with Hawaiian landscapes, Walden preferred the ocean in "all its moods, colors, and actions." He is particularly famous for his paintings of stormy seas. Still, although he specialized in seascapes, Walden continued to produce landscape and volcano scenes. For a number of years, he also gave private lessons. In July 1933, Walden died in Chantilly, France, from injuries suffered in a fall.
Along with Hitchcock and Madge Tennent, Lionel Walden is considered one of the three "giants" of Hawaiian art.
____________________________________________________________________
Lionel Walden (1861-1933) was an American painter active in Hawaii, Cornwall, and France.
He was born in Norwich, Connecticut in 1861. He first became interested in art in Minnesota, where the family moved when his father 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,[1] and Abu Dhabi.[2] 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.
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).[3]
A very beautiful 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). Wikipedia