Emile Walters

Emile Walters was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1893 to parents of Icelandic descent. His father, Páll Valtýr Eiríksson, was from Skagafjörður, Iceland, and his mother was Björg Jónsdóttir. After his father died in 1891, Walters was adopted as a baby by Guðlaugur Kristjánsson and his wife, Anna Þorleifsdóttir, who provided him with a loving home. He moved from Winnipeg to the Icelandic community in North Dakota as a young child in 1898.

Walters began his career painting houses in the Dakotas and Western Canada, using his spare time to paint pictures on household items like pot bottoms and lids. Despite facing discouragement, poverty, and health challenges, he pursued formal art education at the Art Institute of Chicago and later studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. His talent was recognized by Louis C. Tiffany, who awarded him a $2,000 grant from his foundation to support Walters' artistic development.

Walters gained significant recognition for his landscape paintings, particularly his work "Roosevelt's Haunts, Early Autumn," which was painted at President Roosevelt's residence and is now owned by the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. His paintings received awards in New York and Chicago, and his works can be found in numerous art museums, universities, and private collections throughout North America. He specialized in landscapes, with a particular affinity for winter scenes that reflected impressionist influences. Throughout his career, he painted the scenery of central Pennsylvania, Iceland (where he lived for a time), Greenland, and Arctic regions.

Walters served as a painting instructor for summer sessions at The Pennsylvania State University from 1922-1934. Among his honors, he received the Order of the Falcon from King Christian of Denmark. Emile Walters died in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1977, leaving behind a substantial body of work representing Icelandic cultural heritage through American landscapes.