March 2011

Elder Gallery in Charlotte, NC, Offers Works by Ernest Walker & Leon Makielski

Elder Gallery in Charlotte, NC, is presenting the exhibit, Walker Meets Makielski - Old is New Again, featuring works by Ernest Walker and Leon Makielski, on view through Mar. 4 - 29, 2011. A reception will be held on Mar. 4, from 6-8pm.

The exhibition will present paintings from the collections of two early twentieth century painters. Leon Makielski was born in Pennsylvania in 1885 and Ernest Walker was born in England in 1892. Both achieved success as professional painters during their life time and left significant collections of paintings which have become the subject of Elder Gallery’s exhibition.

While a student at the Chicago Art Institute, Makielski spent his summer months at Eagle’s Nest Art Colony in Oregon, IL. Eagle’s Nest Camp, situated west of Chicago, was the most important summer art center in Illinois and attracted such notables as the Chicago sculptor Larado Taft, the painters Ralph Elmer Clarkson and Charles Francis Browne, and the influential writers Hamlin Garland and Henry B. Fuller.

In 1908, Makielski became an assistant instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago and was awarded the school’s top prize, the John Quincy Adams Traveling Scholarship. On Apr. 19, 1909, he sailed for Paris, where he established headquarters for the next four years. He enrolled at the Academie Julian and the Grande Chaumiere, studied with Henri Martin and Richard E. Miller, and exhibited his work at the Paris Salons of 1910 and 1911. Makielski spent his spare time painting in the city’s parks, on the Seine, and in the countryside around Paris, especially Giverny and Versailles

Makielski returned to the United States in 1913 and joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He built a successful career as an art educator, instructor and painter.

In 1913, Ernest Walker moved to the United States and attended the Art Student’s League in New York City. He worked as a freelance artist and, after serving in the United States Army, returned to England, married and painted throughout Great Britain for a number of years. In 1930, Walker returned to Long Island and became a freelance artist and contributed to Fortune, Woman’s Home Companion, McCall’s, Country Life and Pictorial Review.

In 1935, the artist was commissioned by House & Garden Magazine to paint interiors of manor homes in England and a number of his paintings were shown on the cover of the magazine. The artist was invited to exhibit his work at the Chicago Art Institute in 1938 and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Watercolor Exhibition of 1939. In 1941, Walker was chosen to participate in The Whitney Museum’s Exhibition for Contemporary Art.

Elder Gallery’s exhibition is comprised of paintings completed in the United States between 1915 and 1950.

For further information check our NC Commercial Gallery listings, call the gallery at 704/370-6337 or visit
(www.elderart.com).

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