An insider’s look at Walter Anderson’s artwork

A work by a famous forger. A life mask Walter Anderson made from plaster when he was a young man. A decidedly different roof tile.

These are some of the treasures now on display at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs as part of the exhibit “Out of the Vault: Masterworks from the Collection.”

Most of the works are from the museum’s stored collection and some are on loan from private collections, WAMA curator Mattie Codling said, and the exhibit includes works by all three Anderson brothers — Walter, Peter and Mac. While the pieces are of interest on their own, they are even more compelling with their backstories.

For example, there’s the life mask. Walter Anderson was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia in the 1920s when he used plaster to make a cast of his face. Anderson’s iconic felt hat sits on top of the life mask in the exhibit.

“People like to see what Walter really looked like,” Codling said. “And that hat was so much a part of him. It went everywhere with him. It was protection from the sun and the weather, and he even carried baby raccoons inside it.”

‘Portrait of a Young Woman’

“Portrait of a Young Woman” was painted during the same time period. The oil painting represents Anderson’s original career path.

“He began as an oil painter,” Codling said. “Everyone thought he would become a portrait painter. The oils have not been seen in a long time.”

If it had been up to Anderson, this particular portrait never would have seen the light of day again. He had been so disappointed in his work, he tossed it in the trash.

His classmate, Cyril Gardner, however, rescued it from the garbage and kept it for decades, donating the painting to the museum about a year before his death.

‘Allison Sleeping’

Another oil painting, from around 1930, features a young man who was a longtime employee of Shearwater Pottery.

Allison Rochon takes a nap at a table, his hand lightly clutching a piece of fruit, in “Allison Sleeping.”

Rochon might not have known he was to be the subject of a painting, but he also sat for Anderson for works such as two ceramic busts, also part of the exhibit.

Crouching kitty

A highly glazed crouching ceramic cat might look like a strictly indoor kitty, but this cat on a curved base, made around 1930, once was part of a pair that served as roof tiles.

Anderson made them for a friend who later was the inspiration for the priest in the murals in the Ocean Springs Community Center.

The missing ceramic cat was the victim of a storm, Codling said, but the one on display is in the museum’s permanent collection.

A forgery

A watercolor on a nearby wall appears to be Anderson’s familiar “Flock of Ducks.”

It looks authentic, even down to the apparent age of the paper. However, it’s a work by the internationally known forger Mark Landis, who also uses the alias John Grauman. Landis, of Laurel, donates most of his fakes, as was the case here.

‘These Are Mullet’

A simple drawing, “These Are Mullet....,” has a charming history.

As the collector who owns it heard, the original owner, a little girl at the time, was on Horn Island with her parents around 1960 and spotted Anderson with his drawing pad. By then, Anderson was known among locals for his frequent trips to the island, and the girl asked her parents for permission to request his autograph. He agreed, signing his name and adding a drawing of the fish and what is now the work’s title.

“He told Sissy (his wife) later on that that was the only time he’d ever been asked for his autograph,” Codling said. “Today, it’s one of the very few signatures with his name we have on his work.”

Wooden deer

A jaunty and heavy wooden deer primitively carved from wood has an interesting history.

It originally was part of a wooden sculpture menagerie in an outdoor grouping Anderson called “Father Mississippi.” Much of the wood came from an oak tree that fell during the hurricane of 1947.

Over the years, Anderson gave away the figures or left them to the ravages of weather. The deer is the sole survivor of “Father Mississippi.”

“Out of the Vault” is on exhibit at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, 510 Washington Ave., Ocean Springs, through September.

This story was originally published July 9, 2016 at 8:29 PM with the headline "An insider’s look at Walter Anderson’s artwork."