Thomas Bond Walker

Thomas Bond Walker (1861 London - 1933) was an Irish painter.

Walker moved to Belfast in the 1880s and started exhibiting with the "Belfast Art Society". To augment his income he tutored private pupils, one of whom was Paul Henry. Henry recalled Walker as "a shy, retiring, ineffectual little man with a genuine enthusiasm for teaching". Henry was sixteen when he first met Walker, an encounter which Henry later described as having "“changed the whole course”" of his life by being introduced to oil paints. [Paul Henry, "Further Reminiscences", 1973] Walker later introduced Henry to the paintings of Robert W. Fraser (fl.1874-c.1901), whose work he greatly admired. Fraser often painted scenes of rivers, estuaries and boats. Henry's seascapes date from this period and the influence of Fraser is evident.

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