Walter Stuempfig

Who was Walter Stuempfig?

Walter Stuempfig was an American artist and teacher.

He was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania to a moderately wealthy family. After graduation from the Germantown Academy, he enrolled as an architecture student in the University of Pennsylvania. In October 1931 he transferred to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where his instructors included Henry McCarter, Daniel Garber, and Francis Speight. From 1932–1966 he exhibited regularly at the Pennsylvania Academy's Annual Exhibitions.

In 1935 he married Lila Hill, a sculptor who had also studied at the Academy.

Stuempfig was a prolific painter whose works number over 1500. His paintings sold steadily; purchasers from his first solo show in New York in 1943 included the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. He painted figure compositions, landscapes and architectural subjects, still lifes, and portraits; all in a style of romantic realism that fell outside the artistic mainstream of his time. R. Sturgis Ingersoll has written of him:

A layman's chat with him would constitute a lesson in late 16th century and early 17th century Italian art. His heroes were Caravaggio, Degas and Eakins.