Walter Greaves

Walter Greaves, who began life as the son of a Chelsea boat builder and was initially trained as a shipwright and boatman, was a painter, etcher, and topographical draftsman. As an artist he was essentially self-taught until the early 1860s, when he and his brother Henry (1844-1904) met James Abbott McNeil Whistler (1834-1903). They became Whistler's pupils, studio assistants, advisers on Thames topography, and friends for nearly two decades. Walter's earliest oil paintings are charming in their naiveté, and he produced a significant number of etchings and drawings of views in Chelsea....