Walter Herbert Withers (22 October 1854 — 13 October 1914) was an Australian landscape artist and a member of the Heidelberg School of Australian impressionists.
Painter, lithographer and teacher, Walter Withers was arguably the most widely experienced member of the Heidelberg School of Australian landscape artists.
He was born in England and studied painting in London at the Royal Academy and South Kensington Schools.
Upon arriving in Melbourne in 1883 he spent 18 months as a swagman doing odd jobs. From 1884 to 1887 he worked as a draughtsman for a firm of litho printers, at the same time attending life drawing classes at the National Gallery of Victoria School.
It was probably in Europe, having returned to London to marry in 1887, that he acquired his interest in Impressionism and the work of James Whistler.
Withers returned to Melbourne in 1889 to work as an illustrator, then joined the Heidelberg School where he was nicknamed ‘The Colonel’, presumably for his orderly ways. He was awarded the Wynne Prize for landscape paintings in 1897 and 1900 and settled in Eltham, Victoria in 1902.
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Artist information page for Walter Withers
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