Charles Alvah Walker was born in Loudon, NH in 1848. He was a self-taught but versatile artist who used oils, etching, wood and steel engraving, and monotype as media for expression. While engaged in scientific research work at the Peabody Academy of Science at Salem, he developed a talent for both wood and steel engraving. Two of his plates after Mauve and Daubigny received honorable mention at the Paris Salon.

He was a member of the Boston Art Club, the London Print Sellers Association, and the Copley Society. He exhibited at the National Academy of Design from 1884 to 1892, as well as at the Boston Art Club and the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association.

From a Smithsonian 1997 exhibit and book released by Dr. Joann Moser on August 3, 1997 at the National Museum of American Art: “Charles Alvah Walker invented the term ‘monotype’ about 1880.” The exhibition, entitled Singular Impressions: The Monotype in America, included works by Walker along with those of William Merritt Chase, Frank Duveneck, Maurice Prendergast, Richard Diebenkorn, and Jasper Johns.

The majority of oils by Walker were pastoral or White Mountain scenes in the Campton and Sandwich Range area of New Hampshire.

Walker died in Brookline, MA in 1925.

References
Singular Impressions
New Hampshire Scenery
Who Was Who in American Art