Walter Ernest WEBSTER ~ Ballet ✿

Walter Ernest Webster (1877-1959) was a British figure and portrait painter. He also worked as an illustrator. He specialised in painting portraits of young women in a soft, fluid style.

Having once attended the Royal Academy Schools, Webster started exhibiting works at the Royal Academy, and continued to exhibit there almost every year until his death in May 1959.

He also exhibited at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, Royal Glasgow Institute and the Paris Salon.  He was awarded a bronze medal at the Paris Salon in 1912, and won silver medals there in 1913 and 1914, and a gold medal in 1931.

Even while a student, Webster began to work for magazines, building up a fair practice. He produced illustrations for the front covers of several publications including "Ladies' Home Journal" and "Etude". Many of these reflected the Art Deco style of the period.

He also produced illustrations for books, including: eight colour plates for "Champion" by John Colin Dane (1907); four colour plates for "King of the Air: or, To Morocco on an Aeroplane" (1907) by Herbert Strang; four colour plates for "For Treasure Bound" by Harry Collingwood (1910).  He was elected a member of both the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI) and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) in 1920 and of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RP) in 1921. In 1937 he was elected Vice-President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

Webster's work can be seen in many public collections in the UK including The Walker Art Gallery, Gallery Oldham, Paisley Museum and Art Galleries, McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Wellcome Collection, and the Government Art Collection. The last of these holds Webster's portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Webster had earlier painted a watercolour of the young Princess Elizabeth.