John Augustus Walker was a well-known Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

 Gulf Coast artist of the Depression era who was commissioned to undertake several art projects for the Works Progress Administration

Works Progress Administration

The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...

.

Early life

Born in Mobile, Alabama

Mobile, Alabama

Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...

, Walker was first encouraged to become an artist by an elementary school

Elementary school

An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

 teacher, Mayme Simpson.

Forced at an early age to become the family breadwinner, Walker worked from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. daily for the Mobile & Ohio Freight Department, limiting his sleep so that he could devote more waking hours to the study of drawing and painting.

He began his studies under Edmund C. DeCelle (misspelled in his letter as Cecile) of Mobile.

The St. Louis School of Fine Arts

A company-ordered transfer to St. Louis proved fortuitous for Walker, enabling him to enroll in the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, where he studied under the direction of Victor Holm, Edmund Werpel and Frederick Greene Carpenter. After six years of study, he spent several years studying art in museums in New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. Walker also was deeply influenced by the famed painter, illustrator and muralist Frank Brangwyn

Frank Brangwyn

Sir Frank William Brangwyn RA RWS RBA was an Anglo-Welsh artist, painter, water colourist, virtuoso engraver and illustrator, and progressive designer.- Biography :...

.

According to a biography submitted to the University of Alabama

University of Alabama

The University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....

 in 1935, Walker exhibited his work at the fourteenth annual St. Louis Artists Guild Exhibition in 1926, followed by a “two-man” exhibition in Mobile in 1929 and a “one-man” exhibition at the Woman’s Club in Mobile in 1933. Both Mobile exhibitions were sponsored by Allied Arts Guild of Mobile. The Woman’s Club exhibition earned the following positive review in the Mobile Press-Register:

The water colors of John Augustus Walker on exhibition at the Woman’s Club House are among the most beautiful ever seen in Mobile. Exquisitely delicate in handling and coloring, they are an outpouring of the sensitivity and poetic spirit in which John Walker reacts to a beauty which is everywhere – a beauty from which so many now choose to turn away, seeking instead a sordid viewpoint. After all, it is with the spirit with which one sees – and in these water colors John Walker translates transcendent beauty.

Works

Walker is remembered as an unusually tireless artist who labored long hours in his North Royal Street studio in Mobile. His paintings reflect a passion for bright colors, which he acquired from trips to Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

 and Key West

Key West

Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....

 — a passion reinforced by subsequent trips throughout the United States and Gulf Coast region.

Heavy dark outlines and painterly brushwork characterized both his commercial and public works. Walker’s preferred subject matter ranged from Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras

The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...

, fantasy and historical themes to landscapes and portraiture.

Walker's watercolors are still prized throughout the Alabama Gulf Coast region. His paintings are displayed in many homes throughout the St. Louis area and throughout Alabama. Along the Gulf Coast, he is especially remembered for his murals in the old City Hall building in Mobile (now the Museum of Mobile), for the Smith Bakery murals on Dauphin Street in Mobile (now lost) and for his mural designs for the Federal Building Courtroom. Walker paintings also are displayed in numerous public schools throughout the state.

Walker also earned an enduring reputation as a designer of floats, stage sets, and costumes for Mardi Gras. Many of the float designs, noted for their exquisite artwork, are still displayed in museums.

Many of his works earned numerous local, state and national awards. He was a founder and original member of the Mobile Art Guild, which he also served as an instructor.

Historical Panorama of Alabama Agriculture

One of the products for which Walker is most distinguished is the Historical Panorama of Alabama Agriculture

Historical Panorama of Alabama Agriculture

The Historical Panorama of Alabama Agriculture was a series of murals commissioned by the Alabama Extension Service and partly funded by the Works Progress Administration for the 1939 Alabama State Fair, held October 2–7 in Birmingham.-John Augustus Walker:The commission was assigned to John...

, funded by the Works Progress Administration

Works Progress Administration

The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...

 and commissioned by the Alabama Extension Service

Alabama Cooperative Extension System

The Alabama Cooperative Extension System provides educational outreach to the citizens of Alabama on behalf of the state's two land grant universities: Alabama A&M University and Auburn University .The System employs more than 800 faculty, professional educators, and staff members operating in...

 (now Alabama Cooperative Extension System) for exhibition at the 1939 Alabama State Fair. Walker originally was contracted to paint 29 murals, although severe time constraints limited him to only ten. Assuming that the paintings would be only temporary, Walker used tempera water-color paints rather than costlier, more durable oils — his preferred medium.

Following exhibition at the Alabama State Fair, the paintings were shipped to Shreveport for display at the 1939 Louisiana State Fair. Afterward, they were shipped to the Alabama Polytechnic Institute

Auburn University

Auburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...

(now Auburn University) in Auburn and stored in the Duncan Hall attic for almost a half century before they were rediscovered in the 1980s and refurbished.

Although these murals were designed to be only temporary, they are among the Alabama Cooperative Extension System’s most valued historical artifacts and are considered prime examples of WPA-related art associated with the Great Depression era.