Walter Goodall Biography

Walter Goodall (1830-1889) was an English watercolour painter.

He was the youngest son of Edward Goodall, the engraver, and brother of the artists Frederick Goodall and Edward Angelo Goodall. He studied at the school of design at Somerset House and at the Royal Academy Schools.

In 1852, Goodall exhibited three drawings at the Royal Academy. In 1853, he became an associate of the (Old) Society of Painters in Water-colours and continued to be a frequent exhibitor in Pall Mall; in 1862, he became a full member of that society. He was a constant exhibitor at the Royal Manchester Institution and all the principal watercolour exhibitions. Some of his best work was shown at the exhibition of watercolours at Manchester in 1861. His Lottery Ticket was exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876.

Goodall typically painted small subject-pictures, such as The Daydream, The Cradle Song, Waiting for the Ferry-boat, and The Tired Lace-maker. A number of these were lithographed in a series entitled Walter Goodall's Rustic Sketches. Goodall also made drawings from pictures in the Vernon Gallery for engravings published in The Art Journal.

About fourteen years before his death, Goodall had a paralytic seizure, from which he never quite recovered, and during the last few years of his life was unable to practise his art. He died on 14 May 1889, in his fifty-ninth year, leaving a widow and three children.