Walter Witharne

To the ’43 Group’s first exhibition in November 1943, Walter Witharne brought seventeen paintings, more than any of the other newcomers, and nearly all of them were landscapes of the Sabaragamuwa country: the river in spate, the floods at Ratnapura, Adam’s Peak seen from Kalawana and from the town, the falls at Bopath Ela. He painted a traditional view of that hill-and-river landscape, working in watercolour among other media, and the critics of the day found it, in their word, pretty.

He was an invited exhibitor at the inauguration, not a member, and his work appeared again at the exhibition held in 1945 to commemorate Lionel Wendt, where a reviewer judged it pretty still, and bold, but not bold enough. After that the record loses him, and no dates for his birth or death survive in it.

His seventeen Ratnapura scenes are worth keeping for what they mark: the older, gentler landscape tradition that the Group set beside its own experiments at the very first show, before the two ways of painting parted.

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Selected works

1. The Kelani in Spate (1943), landscape · ’43 Group first exhibition, Colombo, November 1943.
   • Source: https://www.43group.org/chapters/appendix-b-catalogue-of-the-first-exhibition
   • Alt: ’Walter Witharne, The Kelani in Spate, a Sabaragamuwa river landscape shown at the first exhibition of the ‘43 Group in 1943.’
2. Ratnapura Floods (1943), landscape · ’43 Group first exhibition, Colombo, November 1943.
   • Source: https://www.43group.org/chapters/appendix-b-catalogue-of-the-first-exhibition
   • Alt: ’Walter Witharne, Ratnapura Floods, one of seventeen landscapes he showed at the first exhibition of the ‘43 Group in 1943.’
3. The Peak from Kalawana (1943), landscape · ’43 Group first exhibition, Colombo, November 1943.
   • Source: https://www.43group.org/chapters/appendix-b-catalogue-of-the-first-exhibition
   • Alt: ’Walter Witharne, The Peak from Kalawana, a view of Adam’s Peak shown at the first exhibition of the ‘43 Group in 1943.’