John Walker

John Walker III (December 24, 1906 – October 16, 1995) was an American art curator, and the second director of the National Gallery of Art, from 1956 to 1969.

Life Walker received an undergraduate degree in art history from Harvard University in 1930, where he studied with Paul J. Sachs. He formed the Harvard Society for Contemporary Art, with Philip Johnson, Lincoln Kirstein, and Edward Warburg. During his tenure at the gallery, Walker cultivated donor relationships with collectors such as the Mellon family, Joseph Widener, Armand Hammer, and Chester Dale; his significant acquisitions included Rembrandt's Aristotle with the Bust of Homer, Fragonard's La Liseuse, El Greco's Laocoon, and the Ginevra de' Benci by Leonardo da Vinci. Walker was the author of six books, including Bellini and Titian and Titian at Ferrara, and an autobiography, Self-Portrait with Donors. Like his predecessor, David Finley, Walker served on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, from 1967 to 1971.

In 1961, Walker hired J. Carter Brown as his assistant. He retired in 1969, and lived in Florida, Fishers Island, New York, and England.

Works National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1963, and subsequent American and European editions Self-Portrait with Donors: Confessions of an Art Collector. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1974, Joseph Mallord William Turner. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1976; concise edition: New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1983 Portraits: 5,000 Years. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1983