Walter Anderson’s Fairy Tales

The exhibition, Walter Anderson’s Fairy Tales, features original drawings, block prints, and ceramic works by the famed southern artist. Highlighting this exhibition is Cinderella on Her Way to the Ball, a linoleum block print carved by Walter Anderson and colored by his children in the 1940s. This piece was donated to the Walter Anderson Museum of Art by the West Baton Rouge Historical Association. Other artwork on loan from the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs includes, Jack the Giant Killer, The Frog Prince, The Pied Piper, Billy Goats Gruff, the Fairy Godmother, and Gerda and the Swan.

Walter Inglis Anderson (1903 – 1965) was born in New Orleans and educated by his mother, Annette McConnell Anderson. An artist in her own right, Mrs. Anderson had studied under Ellsworth Woodward at the Newcomb School of Fine Arts. She encouraged her children to create art every day. Walter Anderson later studied at the Parsons School for Art and Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He moved to Ocean Springs, Mississippi as a young adult where he was inspired by the local flora and fauna. 

Walter Anderson’s block prints, watercolors, and ceramics have become iconic representations of the Gulf Coast and an integral part of the Arts and Crafts and American Contemporary Art movements. Although misunderstood and shunned for the majority of his life, Walter Anderson is today celebrated as a visionary, a genius, and the Gulf Coast’s favorite son.

Exhibition overview from museum website