Valerie Harrisse Walter | |
---|---|
![]() Valerie Harrisse Walter with her sculpture of the gorilla John Daniel II | |
Born | February 15, 1892
![]() Baltimore ![]() |
Died | February 29, 1984
![]() Baltimore ![]() |
Occupation |
Sculptor,
artist
![]() |
Valerie Harrisse Walter (February 15, 1892 – February 29, 1984) was an American sculptor from Baltimore, Maryland. She primarily created portrait busts and sculptures of animals, including dogs and life-sized bronze gorillas.
Valerie Harrisse Walter was born on February 15, 1892 in Baltimore, Maryland, [1] the daughter and one of five children of prominent Jewish lawyer Moses Raphael Walter and Bertha Ulman Walter. [2] She attended Madame Lefebvre's School in Baltimore. [1]
Walter began sculpting at age 17 after her mother bought her a box of clay, which she used to model her dog Fritz. [3] [4] She studied sculpture under Ephraim Keyser at the Maryland Institute and Henry Augustus Lukeman in his New York studio. [1] [5] In 1922, she sailed on the SS Lapland to Paris to study art, along the way completing a bas relief portrait of another passenger, a girl named Genevieve Lymans. In Paris, she completed busts of Riccardo Bertelli of the Roman Bronze Works and Dr. Nicholas Sbarounis Tricorphos, surgeon general of the Greek army. [5]
She worked in Washington, DC for a time, creating a number of portraits of foreign diplomats and their family members, as well as a bust of President William Howard Taft for Taft Junior High School. [4]
In 1924, she met the gorilla John Daniel II from Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus. (He was so named because he was the successor gorilla to John Daniel.) She created a life-sized sculpture of the three-year-old gorilla. She presented it to the Baltimore Zoo in the 1948, and it has been exhibited outdoors on the zoo grounds since 1995. [5] [6]
Valerie Harrisse Walter died on 29 February 1984. [7]
Valerie Harrisse Walter | |
---|---|
![]() Valerie Harrisse Walter with her sculpture of the gorilla John Daniel II | |
Born | February 15, 1892
![]() Baltimore ![]() |
Died | February 29, 1984
![]() Baltimore ![]() |
Occupation |
Sculptor,
artist
![]() |
Valerie Harrisse Walter (February 15, 1892 – February 29, 1984) was an American sculptor from Baltimore, Maryland. She primarily created portrait busts and sculptures of animals, including dogs and life-sized bronze gorillas.
Valerie Harrisse Walter was born on February 15, 1892 in Baltimore, Maryland, [1] the daughter and one of five children of prominent Jewish lawyer Moses Raphael Walter and Bertha Ulman Walter. [2] She attended Madame Lefebvre's School in Baltimore. [1]
Walter began sculpting at age 17 after her mother bought her a box of clay, which she used to model her dog Fritz. [3] [4] She studied sculpture under Ephraim Keyser at the Maryland Institute and Henry Augustus Lukeman in his New York studio. [1] [5] In 1922, she sailed on the SS Lapland to Paris to study art, along the way completing a bas relief portrait of another passenger, a girl named Genevieve Lymans. In Paris, she completed busts of Riccardo Bertelli of the Roman Bronze Works and Dr. Nicholas Sbarounis Tricorphos, surgeon general of the Greek army. [5]
She worked in Washington, DC for a time, creating a number of portraits of foreign diplomats and their family members, as well as a bust of President William Howard Taft for Taft Junior High School. [4]
In 1924, she met the gorilla John Daniel II from Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus. (He was so named because he was the successor gorilla to John Daniel.) She created a life-sized sculpture of the three-year-old gorilla. She presented it to the Baltimore Zoo in the 1948, and it has been exhibited outdoors on the zoo grounds since 1995. [5] [6]
Valerie Harrisse Walter died on 29 February 1984. [7]