A pleasing landscape painting by Walter Waller Caffyn of figures near cottages and a pond. Two figures and a dog can be seen walking by a pond next to a cottage on a fine day. Other figures can be made out passing other buildings further along the lane in the distance.

Walter Waller (or Wallor) Caffyn was born in Dorking, Surrey in 1850 the son of a hairdresser also named Walter Waller Caffyn. The family lived at High Street, Dorking where his father probably also conducted his business. Whilst there is no record of which art school he attended, he undoubtedly received an artistic education due to the highly skilled work he produced. He is known to have spent time working with his father as a hairdresser before becoming a professional artist around the age of 22. His skills were not just confined to art; he also had a talent for music and was an excellent violinist.

He married Eliza Beagley at Southwark on 1 June 1873 and they went on to have four children together. The family lived in Dorking at Howard Road before settling at 14 Vincents Road by 1881. He made his debut at the Royal Academy in 1876 and continued to exhibit there throughout his life. He also exhibited at the Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.

Caffyn was a skilled artist and specialised in river and harvest landscapes of Surrey and the surrounding counties including Kent. He also visited Yorkshire to paint a number of there. He was friends with Henry Leonidas Rolfe a painter of angling and fishing subjects collaborating with him on some of Rolfe's landscape backgrounds. He died at Dorking in 1898.

Examples are held by the Brighton and Hove Museums, Dorking Museum, Glasgow Museum, Guildford House Gallery and Mole Valley District Council.

© Benton Fine Art