Walter of Durham

Under Henry III

By 1265 Walter of Durham was a master painter, painting statues in Westminster Palace for Henry III. Appointed to a royal serjeanty in 1270, he acted as pictor regis.

Under Edward I

Walter continued working under Edward I, repairing the Painted Chamber in the 1290s. He decorated the tombs of Henry III and Eleanor of Castile in Westminster Abbey, and painted the tomb for her heart at Blackfriars. His final commission, between 1297 and 1300, was the Coronation Chair, installed next to Edward the Confessor's shrine.

Legacy

The Painted Chamber was destroyed by fire in 1834. In 1816 four ceiling panels—a seraph and the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Jonah—were removed by Adam Lee. Two panels, a seraph and a prophet, resurfaced in Bristol in 1993 and were purchased by the British Museum in 1995. These oak panels are early English wood paintings showing French Gothic influence, marking a departure from William of Westminster's style.

One ornamental boss is in Sir John Soane's Museum. Charles Stothard made watercolour copies of the murals for Vetusta Monumenta, and Thomas Crofton Croker produced another set held by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Ashmolean Museum. Reconstructions of Walter's tomb paintings by E. W. Tristram remain in Westminster Abbey.