WMR memorializes Walker

Memorial of Frederick Walker.

Rossetti, William M., "Frederick Walker, A.R.A." Academy (June 12, 1875): 162. Web. 21 Sept. 2011.

Rossetti lauds Walker as having produced "delicate and right art, as almost to have a certain Grecian character." Rossetti briefly summarizes Walker's relatively young age and the body of consistently good work he produced nonetheless, closing with the estimation that Walker could have made "quite a decisive mark on the art of his time."

This notice allows Rossetti to propound the value of naturalness in artistic expression divorced from didactic devices or as he puts it, "without antecedent or consequent." Walker's naturalness is exemplified, as Rossetti explains, "in selection of subject-matter, he was simply and solely artistic; never doing anything which had deep or inventively concepted meaning, or which drew upon the powers of elaborate thought or narrative combination." Rossetti finds it to Walker's credit that in his work, there is no "added freight of meaning and ingenuity from the artist's own resources." Ultimately, says Rossetti, Walker presented his subjects realistically and as they would be perceived in person.