Noted tonalist Walter Clark was born in Brooklyn, New York and educated as an engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before pursuing an artistic career. Shortly after graduation in 1869, his architectural training served as motivation to venture abroad and study the artful structures of Europe, Egypt, India, and China. He continued his education with enrollment at the National Academy of Design upon his return to New York in 1876. He studied both sculpture and painting under Lemuel Everett Wilmarth (1835-1918) and Jonathan Scott Hartley (1845-1912), but was encouraged to turn his attention to landscape painting by George Inness (1825-1894), to whom Clark owned an adjacent studio in New York.

Clark enjoyed a successful career and distinguished reputation, spending most of his time in East Hampton, Long Island and Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. He spent summers painting in the art colonies at Cos Cob and Old Lyme, Connecticut, Gloucester, Massachusetts, and Ogunquit, Maine. He exhibited at the National Academy for nearly four decades, appropriately earning the Inness Gold Medal in 1902. He was featured in other important exhibitions as well, including shows at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Art Club, Brooklyn Art Association, and the 1893 Chicago and 1904 St. Louis World Fair. He was elected to the National Academy of Design, the Society of American Artists, and the Salmagundi Club.