Introduction to William Henry Walker
W.H. Walker was the illustrator of a 1907 version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, published by John Lane. A quick Google search will find his dates, or so I thought.
I quickly found a couple of different attributions for the illustrations for this Alice. Several sites, Chris Beetles and Sotheby's included, cite this W.H. Walker to be William Henry Romaine Walker (1854-1940) who was an architect but did book illustration in his spare time. This didn't quite ring true to me so I decided to investigate further.
On other sites, the 1907 Alice illustrations were attributed to William Henry Walker (1871-1938), an American who had been a cartoonist and illustrated for Life Magazine.
William Henry Romaine Walker
Chris Beetle's biography of William Walker reads "Dying in 1940, Walker was the subject of a posthumous retrospective in 1952 at Walker’s Galleries, where his work was exhibited alongside that by other members of his family". So the William Walker they're writing about came from an artistic family. Let's have a look at William Henry Romaine Walker's family.
William Henry Romaine Walker was born in 1854, the son of John Walker who was a vicar from Bury, Lancashire, and mother Caroline who came from Brixton, originally in Surrey. William also had sisters Caroline A. (b.1850), Rachel E. (b.1851), Christiana E. (b.1856) and a brother John S.M. (b.1858). Their father Rev. John Walker became vicar of St. Saviour's in Pimlico, London. It looks like John S.M. (possibly Spencer Mullins) also became a vicar. The 1891 census sees Caroline as a widow with Rachel, unmarried, living with her. I can't positively trace Christiana very far. I'm not seeing a lot of artistic pursuits going on there so who is the artistic family Chris Beetles is referring to?
William Romaine, as we'll call him, became an architect, working on many buildings, modifications to buildings, and interior decoration throughout his career. Creative yes, but there's no hint that he would turn to children's book illustration.
William Henry Walker of Wandsworth
So let's go back to the 'Walker's Galleries' that Chris Beetles referred to. The Artbiogs site says this:- "Walker's Galleries was founded circa. 1890 by Augustus Joel Walker (1868-1965), art dealer, artists' colourman, frame-maker and fine art publisher. Born in Wandsworth the son of a tailor, he died three years short of his century in Odiham, Hampshire. Located at 118 New Bond Street the Gallery is known to have staged the first exhibition of the Seven and Five Society in April 1920. It appears to have existed until the early 1960's with dozens of artists exhibiting there yet, little is known about the establishment". I've found elsewhere that this gallery actually closed in 1962.
The Augustus Joel Walker referred to here was born in 1868 to Henry Thomas and Elizabeth Walker of Westminster. The 1911 census tells us that Augustus had brothers and sisters including Herbert John (b.1861), Ada Marion (b.1865), Mildred Clara (b.1870), Eleanor Gertrude (b.1874) and, most interestingly, William Heney Walker who was born in 1863 in Wandsworth. Heney is no doubt incorrectly transcribed and should be Henry.
Augustus's profession is 'Fine art publisher', which fits with what we know. The 1881 census shows us that there was also an older sister, Elizabeth, whose profession was shown as 'Artist wood engraver' and a brother, Frank, who was an 'Artist Painter'. Herbert's profession in both the 1881 and 1911 census is 'Artist painter/painting'. In the 1911 census Herbert, William and Mildred are shown as 'Artists' whilst Ada's is shown as 'Secretary & Art Gallery'. Perhaps the confusion has arisen as this William H. Walker's profession was shown as being an 'Architectural Draughtsman' in the 1891 census, similar to William Romaine.
This is the artistic family we're looking for. Chris Beetles, Sotheby's and others have conflated architect William Romaine-Walker of Lancashire (b.1854) with artist William Henry Walker of Wandsworth (b.1863). It is the family of the latter who had a private art gallery in Bond Street, London that exhibited William's work alongside that of his siblings. This William exhibited watercolours in four solo shows (1919, 1924, 1925, 1926) at his family’s gallery. The gallery also published 'Walker's Quarterly', an art publication that ran from 1920-1932.
William Romaine-Walker did NOT illustrate Alice
We've got this far, and although we've established that William Romaine Walker and W.H. Walker are not one and the same, it's still not clear who illustrated the 1907 'Alice'. William Henry Walker, William Romain (b.1926), William Romaine-Walker can all be found online with varying dates, together with artwork that belongs to some William Walker or other, who knows which, as everyone is confused. I can say with certainty that William Romaine-Walker did NOT illustrate Alice, as he was an architect and not an artist or book-illustrator.
William Walker of Derbyshire
That leaves us with Walker's Galleries William in the frame and American William Walker, the one who'd illustrated for Life Magazine. At this point I'm bringing in suspect number 4, William Walker of Derbyshire, born in 1862. The 1911 census shows him to be a 'Litho Artist'. He was married to Annie Walker and had a son, born in 1892, also William. There the story stops with him, I can find nothing more but I thought he should be mentioned.
Moving on from family history records, I thought I'd turn to style and signature identification as my next move. I've compared signatures from some of American William Walker's Life Magazine covers and illustrations that I could find online and I think they're pretty similar although the Alice plates are only signed with a monogram. Take a look and see what you think.
The colour watercolour pictures here come from Mutual Art who have attributed them to the American William Walker - these are clearly by the same artist as the 1907 Alice and are signed with the same monogram. As the Life magazine covers are signed with a full signature, it's difficult to confidently prove they're by the same artist.
William Henry Walker Obituary
Without examples of Walker's Galleries William's work, it is impossible to prove it beyond a doubt but in my opinion American William H. Walker (1871-1938) is the one - I believe the initials and signatures were by the same hand. He was a book illustrator and regular contributor of political and satirical cartoons to the original Life Magazine from 1898 until 1924. See his obituary from the New York Times in 1938. He also contributed cartoons to other periodicals and newspapers including Harper's Magazine, The New York Evening Post and the New York Herald. He was also the first to use the lithographer's crayon for cartoons.
It is only documented that Walker's Galleries William was an artist or an architectural draughtsman and that he exhibited watercolours at his brother's gallery, it cannot be shown that he illustrated books. The style of the 1907 Alice illustrations is cartoon-like and, given that there is documented evidence that American William Walker was a book illustrator and cartoonist, together with the signature/monogram info, I'm as confident as I can be about this attribution.
I believe it was also this William who illustrated Mr Hipp or Three Friends In Search of Pleasure (1893), Tales of Jack and Jane (1906) by Charles Young, Nightcaps for the Babies (1907) and also the cover design for Mrs. Stawell’s Fairies I Have Met (the illustrations are by Edmund Dulac).
If you have any information on the Walker's Galleries William, especially pictures produced by him, or anything that proves or disproves what I've said, I'd love to hear from you (please read the whole article first!).
