Walter Launt Palmer was born in Albany, NY in 1854 and was the son of the famous sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer. In his youth he was acquainted with the leading artists of the day such as Frederick E. Church, John Kensett and John McEntee, all of whom frequented the Palmer home.

At age 24 he began his formal study of art with the artist Frederick E. Church, the Hudson Valley painter. In the early and mid-1870's Walter traveled and studied extensively in Italy and France. He studied the work of the impressionists as well as all the expatriate American artists in Europe. Upon his return to the states in the late 1870's, he and Church rented a studio in New York City and kept it from 1878 until 1881.

Walter L. Palmer died in his hometown Albany NY on April 16, 1932 at the age of 78. After his death his work fell out of favor and many museums de-accessioned his paintings in the years following W.W.II. Indeed, by the early 1960's, representational art was out and often the frames were worth more than the paintings. People liked clean walls with no paintings -- a sort of a delayed reaction to the covered wall style of the Victorian period.