Collectors

Mary Sophia Walker and Harriet Sarah Walker

Active
1891–1895
Collecting
A new museum and ancient art

Donors of the Walker Art Building as well as a significant collection of art and antiquities, Mary Sophia Walker (1839–1904) and Harriet Sarah Walker (1844–1898) were among the most significant benefactors in the development of the art collection at Bowdoin. Commissioned in 1891 in memory of their uncle, Theophilus Wheeler Walker (1813–1890), their Renaissance Revival building was to be “entirely devoted to art.” Inspiring donors and collectors since its completion in 1894, the Walker Art Building remains home to the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. In purchasing works in celebration of the new building, the Walker sisters sought the advice of Edward Perry Warren (1860–1928), an eminent American antiquities collector. Greek ceramics and Roman glass vessels were among the first ancient art objects the Walkers acquired for Bowdoin. 

Related Essay: The Walker Sisters and Classicism in Nineteenth-Century New England Laura F. Sprague The Walker Sisters and Classicism in Nineteenth-Century New England

Left, Robert Gordon Hardie, Portrait of Miss Harriet Sarah Walker, 1900, oil on canvas, 1904.4 ; Right, Anna Elizabeth Klumpke, Portrait of Miss Mary Sophia Walker, 1895, oil on canvas. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Bequest of Mary Sophia Walker, 1904.3.
The Walker Art Building Murals
The Walker Art Building Murals 1894
An ancient, ornately-decorated, two-handled, greek vase. The black background is decorated wth assorted brownish-orange floral motifs, male youths,satyrs and a winged figure on the base and neck.
Nestoris (two-handled jar) Attributed to the Primato Painter ca. 350–325 BCE
Half-circle painting of a deity leaning on a statue, flanked by admirers. Surrounded by an ornately carved gold frame.
Athens John La Farge 1894
Half-circle painting of an angel standing with two cherubs while two figures kneel before her. Ornately carved gold frame reads "FLORENCE."
Florence Abbott Handerson Thayer 1894
Half-circle painting of a nude woman flanked by two winged women who draw nearby figures. Surrounded by an ornately carved gold frame.
Rome (The Art Idea) Elihu Vedder 1894
Half-circle painting of a seated woman flanked by two seated figures and a winged lion. Ornately carved gold frame reads "VENICE."
Venice Kenyon Cox 1894
An ancient narrow, two-handled glass vessel tinted teal. The vessel is a long pipe shape folded in half so the two opening meet at the top.
Double unguentarium (perfume vessel) 4th–5th c. CE
An ancient roundish glass vessel with two small handles and a short narrower neck opening to a wider mouth. It is painted navy blue and has yellow and turquoize stripes and a chevron pattern. The lip is painted turquoise.
Core-formed glass aryballos (small vessel) 6th–5th c. BCE
Alternate view of An ancient glass dish mostly transparent after brown and gold paint worn away.
Plate 4th c. CE
An ancient paritally-transparent glass vessel with a long narrow neck and a wider round base. It is tinted green with some brownish-gold flecks of worn paint.
Unguentarium (perfume bottle) 2nd c. CE
An ancient small, paritally-transparent glass jar tinted green with some brownish paint marks toward the lip.
Jar 3rd–4th c. CE
An ancient minature, one-handled, ornately-decorated, glass jug tinted green. Its neck is decorated with glass rings and its lip is wavy.
Small jug 4th–5th c. CE
An ancient two-handled glass vessel with green handles, a pearl-colored base, that becomes gold moving up the vessel.
Two-handled jar 3rd–4th c. CE
Painting of the ruins of a Greek Doric temple with the ocean and mountains in the background.
Temple of Aphaea, Aegina John Rollin Tilton ca. 1870–1879
1904.3
Portrait of Mary Sophia Walker Anna Elizabeth Klumple 1895
Portrait of Harriet Sarah Walker wearing a black dress and her hair pulled back, posed next to a blue vase with a mirror behind her.
Portrait of Harriet Sarah Walker Robert Gordon Hardie 1900