The St. Martin Gate, Oil On Canvas Signed Walbourn

Oil on canvas depicting the Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, circa 1900.

Signed lower right, Walbourn.

90cm x 60cm.

Walbourn was born on February 16, 1872, in Dalston, Middlesex, England. The second of five children, he was educated in his hometown. His father, a property owner in Tasmania and Australia, initially disapproved of his artistic ambitions but eventually helped him set up a studio at the family home and finance his art training. In 1895, he moved to Chingford, Essex, and began exhibiting at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. From 1897 onward, his paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Royal Society of British Artists. His works were well received, and many were sold by the London art dealers W.W. Sampson and Louis Wolfe. In 1906, he married Eva Gardner (not to be confused with Ava, born in 1922), who helped him by painting the backgrounds of some of his large canvases and who subsequently acquired recognition of her own. He died on June 29, 1927.