Taylor, Walter 1860 - 1943

Walter Taylor was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England on 16 February 1860.  He trained as an architect at the Architectural Association Schools, but later decided to pursue a career as an artist. Consequently in the late 1890s he studied painting under Fred Brown at the Royal College of Art in London.  He subsequently worked as a watercolourist, mainly painting landscapes and architectural subjects.  He was a man of considerable wealth and travelled extensively in France and Italy. Among his friends was Walter Sickert with whom he painted in Dieppe.

Taylor exhibited at Carfax & Co. Gallery, Chenil Gallery, Dudley Gallery, Goupil Gallery, the London Salon, New English Art Club, Royal Academy, and at the Royal Society of British Artists in London.  He held his first solo exhibition at the Grafton Gallery in London in 1911. His work was included in the Exhibition of the Work of English Post-Impressionists, Cubists and Others at the Public Art Galleries, Brighton in December 1913–January 1914.

Taylor was a founder member in 1911 of the Camden Town Group. He was also a member of the London Group and the Monarro Group, a little-known group of artists founded by Lucien Pissarro in 1919.  

Apparently Taylor only had one functioning eye, however, this does not appear to have affected his work as an artist or his appreciation of art.  He amassed an important collection of contemporary art. He died in London on 15 June 1943.  A memorial exhibition was held at the Leicester Galleries in London  in 1944.  Examples of his work are held at the Tate and at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery.