Walter Clark (American, 1848-1917) oil on canvas painting depicting a Spring landscape with flowering trees in a green meadow, a small house in the background. Signed "W. Clark" lower right. Housed in a molded gilt wood frame with lamb's tongue running pattern and off white linen liner. Sight - 13 3/4" H x 19 5/8" W. Framed - 20 3/4" H x 26 3/4" W. Late 19th/early 20th century. Provenance: The collection of Dr. William Kendall Striker, Chattanooga, TN. Biography: Before becoming known as a leading tonalist and impressionist painter, Walter Clark studied engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, traveled in Europe, India, China, and Japan, and spent time in Wyoming as a sheep herder. He returned to New York to study art at the National Academy of Design with Lemuel Wilmarth and for five years with Jonathan Scott Hartley. Beginning 1883, Clark was exhibiting landscapes at the National Academy of Design, and increasingly, he was turning from Tonalism to Impressionism, influenced not only by George Inness but by his friends John Twachtman, Edward Potthast, and Joseph DeCamp. In 1893, his paintings were exhibited at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago; in 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York; and 1904 at the St. Louis Exposition celebrating the Louisiana Purchase. He was elected to the National Academy of Design, the Society of American Artists, and the Salmagundi Club. Clark also won many awards including an Inness Gold Medal from the National Academy of Design. (adapted from David B. Dearinger, "Walter Clark", Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design, Volume One, 1826-1925, Askart).