A genre painter, William Aiken Walker, is primarily known for his expressions of plantations, cotton fields, African Americans, and dock scenes. The son of a prominent cotton agent, he was a true Southerner, born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1838. Walker completed his first painting at twelve and received his formal art education in Dusseldorf. Walker exhibited at the Southern Art Union, 1880, Boston Arts Club, 1881, American Expo, 1885-86, Artist’s Association of New Orleans, 1885-1905, and the Columbian Expo, Chicago, 1893.