Walter King Stone

Walter King Stone (1875–1949) was an American artist and illustrator, teaching art at Cornell University.

Early life and education

Stone was born in Barnard, Monroe County, New York, on March 2, 1875, the son of William Talmage and Jenny Filer Stone.[1] He attended public school in Rochester, received his formal training in art at Rochester’s Mechanics’ Institute and Athenaeum and then at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he was a student of Arthur Wesley Dow. Stone adopted Dow's tonalist style.[2]

Career

Beginning in the early 1900s he was active as an independent illustrator, painter and writer. In the first years of the century he won widespread recognition for his nature illustrations. His work appeared in Scribner’s Magazine, Century Magazine, Colliers’, Outing, Country Life in America, St. Nicholas, and in the Country Gentleman, as well as in various books. At this time he worked often with Walter Pritchard Eaton.[3]

Stone traveled to New York City in 1909 illustrating a work with Eaton, and then on to Europe.[4]

As a member of the Salmagundi Club, he exhibiting works there in 1914-15.[5]

In 1916 he traveled to Glacier National Park with Eaton, providing artwork for Eaton's railroad-sponsored stories. Together they worked from Many-Glaciers Hotel, then recently built by the Great Northern Railroad.[6][7] John Singer Sargent was also painting at Glacier during this season.

Stone began teaching at Cornell University as Acting Professor of Drawing in 1920, as Assistant Professor beginning in 1922, as Associate Professor in 1942, and as Associate Professor Emeritus from 1943.[2]

In 1927-1928 he traveled to the Mojave Desert, painting and co-writing a story for Good Housekeeping with Alice Adams Means.[8] Stone's works from this trip exhibit a higher-key palette and more impressionistic brushwork, much like the California Impressionists of the day. Many works from this trip were exhibited at the Arnot Art Museum in Elmira, New York, the following year.[9]

In 1943 he held a solo show at Washington's Smithsonian Natural History Museum.[10]

Stone died in Ithaca, New York, in 1949.

Today Stone's works command prices in the range of $500-$3000, but in 2019 a work titled "Expansive Valley With Winding River" sold at a Freeman's auction for $10,000.[11]

Legacy

Cornell has established the Edith and Walter King Stone Memorial Prize, awarded to B.F.A. students in their junior year based on accomplishment and promise in the field of art.[12]

  • From Iceberg Lake Magnificent Battlements Tower Four Thousand Feet Into the Air, 1917
  • Rabbitbrush in the Desert - California, 1927

References
  1. Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, New York. 22 June 1949, pg. 20.
  2. "Memorial Statement, Walter King Stone" (PDF).
  3. A Stone's Throw, Walter King Stone, Friends of Walter King Stone, 1961.
  4. The Harbor, Scribner's Magazine, Vol XLIX, No. 2, February 1911.
  5. Salmagundi Club Painting and Exhibition Records 1940-1951 and Water Color Exhibition Records 1900-1951. Alexander W. Katlan, Salmagundi Club, New York, 2009.
  6. The Park of Many Glaciers, Eaton, Walter Pritchard. Harper's, Vol. CXXXV, No. DCCCV, June 1917.
  7. Railway and Marine News, Vol XV No. 6, June 1917, Seattle, Wash. Kenneth C. Kerr editor.
  8. Call of the Desert, Means, Alice Adams, Good Housekeeping, August 1929.
  9. Oil Paintings by Walter King Stone. Arnot Art Museum, January 1929.
  10. The Evening Star. Washington DC, 20 June 1943. pg D-14.
  11. Freeman's Gallery, Philadelphia. The Collection of Dorrance "Dodo" H. Hamilton, April 29, 2018, Lot 27. https://www.freemansauction.com/auction/lot/27-walter-king-stone-american-1875-1949/?lot=540012&sd=1, accessed 2/22/22.
  12. Cornell University Awards and Scholarships, https://aap.cornell.edu/academics/art/about/awards
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