Henry Oliver Walker, a Boston-born artist of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts tradition, earned a distinguished reputation as a portrait and mural painter. His murals, commissioned for numerous public buildings, were allegorical. Many of these frescos had figures infused with idealism and sensual virtue.

As a child, Walker attended school near Beacon Hill in Boston. He did not begin his art career until he was age 36 because he had done secretarial work in New York at the offices of Day, Dana & Company to support a sister who needed financial help. However, when she died young and his parents did not need help, he declined an offer to become private secretary for a Mr. Rogers, who was a partner of J.P. Morgan, an...