AFA Winter 2019

Winter 88 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com The Work of Walter Launt Palmer by W. Douglas McCombs alter Launt Palmer (1854–1932) has become known as the “painter of the American winter.” When one encounters his work today, it is usually a snow scene, which invariably displays his trademark blue shadows. Yet Palmer was a much more versatile artist, and his range of subjects—domestic interiors, European land and cityscapes, American woodlands, and snow-covered meadows—all reveal his ability to paint feeling and atmosphere into his physical settings. Born in Albany, New York, to sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer and Mary Jane Seamans, Wallie, as he was known among family, grew up in a household where the arts flourished and artists such as Frederic Church, John Kensett, and Henry Kirke Brown were family friends. Church, in fact, tutored the young Palmer at his home, Olana, and later shared a studio with him in New York City at the Tenth Street Studio Building. Yet, despite his connections to the New York art community and his numerous travels to Europe, the Far East, Egypt, Greece, Mexico, Canada, and the American West, Palmer preferred living and working in his home community of Albany. Photograph of Walter Launt Palmer by Antonio Sorgato, Venice, Italy, 1885. Albumen silver print. Albany Institute of History & Art, Erastus Dow Palmer Papers (AQ 185). Brilliant Bit of Color