Eleanor Walter was born in 1910 in San Francisco, California to a prominent Jewish family active in Congregation Emanu-El.[5][6] The Walter family ancestors had arrived in San Francisco in 1851, during the Gold Rush.[1] Her parents were Florence (née Schwartz) and John Isidor Walter.[7] Her mother was a master at bookbinding and a member of the Hand Bookbinders of California.[8][9] Her father worked as a treasurer in the family investment and merchant business, D. N. & E. Walter & Company (David Nathan and Emanuel Walter and Company).[7] Her father served in many local leadership roles, including as the President of the California School of Fine Arts (later known as San Francisco Art Institute).[7] Edgar Melville Walter, was her paternal uncle and he was an architectural sculptor and painter, who studied under Rodin.[10][11]
Sinton attended Miss Burke's School during high school. Between 1922 and 1923, she attended classes at the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA) on Saturday mornings, before she decided to formally study there.[5] From 1926 until 1928, she studied under Lucien Labaudt at CSFA.[5] In 1938 to 1940, she returned to CSFA to study under Maurice Sterne, whom she also worked with on WPA projects.[5]
Career
Her first solo exhibition was in 1947, and the Raymond and Raymond Gallery in San Francisco.[5] Her first solo museum exhibition was in 1949 at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Her earliest works, from the 1940s, were primarily focused on interiors and landscapes.[12][13] In the 1960s, her work was fully abstract; and by the 1970s she was working in a loose but figurative phase.[13][14]
Riess, Suzanne B.; Sinton, Nell (1992). An Adventurous Spirit: The Life of a California Artist(PDF). Margot S. Biestman (introduction), Joan Sinton Dodd (introduction), Ruth Braunstein (introduction), Tony DeLap (introduction), Philip E. Linhares (introduction). The Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
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