Frank Walter
Antigua, Lesser Antilles, 1926.
Francis Archibald Wentworth Walter, the self-styled “Seventh prince of the Western Indies, Lord of Follies and the Ding-a-Ding Nook”.
A writer and artist with prodigious talent, his undeniable genius was flawed by his delusions of aristocratic grandeur. He believed himself to be a descendant of the noble classes of Europe, from Charles II to Franz Josef of Austria and the Dukes of Buccleuch.
In 1948, at 22 years of age, he reached great success when he became the first black man to run a sugar plantation in Antigua. Although he was held in high esteem on the island due to his intellect and his achievements, he left it all behind to travel Europe in search of new skills and his genealogical origins.
A visit to Scotland in the 50's marked the beginning of a perpetual affection towards this country, to which he returned on several occasions in his imagination and in his paintings.
He returned to the Caribbean with a fragile mind, and spent the last twenty-five years of his life there in an isolated cabin on a mountain in Antigua, surrounded by his writing, some 25,000 typed pages that spoke of history, philosophy, his autobiography and the extraordinary paintings and sculptures that speak to us in an unmistakeable and visionary voice.
These paintings, of miniature landscapes, painted with an unusual immediacy, on any material he had to hand, announce the discovery of one of the most interesting artists from the Caribbean in the last 50 years.
A solo exhibition of his work was presented in Trinity College Dublin from July to September 2013.
Frank Walter died in 2009.
Works in the collection:
Tree Series: Through the Trees (Green Grass)
Oil on photographic paper.
20,2 x 25,2 cm.
Self Portrait Series: Sitting in a Tree
Oil on card.
20,2 x 25 cm.
Landscape with skein of Birds
Oil on card.
33,5 x 17,3 cm.
Three Fine Trees with Dark Leaves c. 1980
Oil on card.
28 x 18 cm.
A Forest
Oil on card.
27,7 x 25,8 cm.
Trees with Brown Leaves and Fence
Oil on card.
22,5 x 19,5.
Landscape Series: Bay with Headland and Tree
Oil on Polaroid card.
10 x 8,5 cm.
Landscape Series, Scotland: Three Birds in Flight
Oil on Polaroid card.
10 x 8,5 cm.
Landscape Series, Scotland: Black Sky with White Path
Oil on Polaroid card.
10 x 8,5 cm.
Landscape Series: Horse Grazing by a River
Oil on Polaroid card.
10 x 8,5 cm.
Landscape Series, Antigua: Night Sky White River c. 1980
Oil on Polaroid card.
10 x 8,5 cm.
Landscape Series, Antigua: Three Trees Against Hurricane Sky
Oil on Polaroid card.
10 x 8,5 cm.
Landscape Series, Antigua: Hurricane Sky with Black Mountain
Oil on Polaroid card.
10 x 8,5 cm.
Landscape Series, Scotland: Black Cliffs, Yellow Sunburst
Oil on Polaroid card.
10 x 8,5 cm.
Landscape Series: Purple Hills and Green Sky
Oil on Polaroid card.
10 x 8,5 cm.
Landscape Series: Purple Sky
Oil on Polaroid card.
10 x 8,5 cm.