Walter of Durham

Walter of Durham (died c. 1305) was a thirteenth century painter and craftsman, who was in service to Henry III and his son Edward I. Details of his life have been ascertained from records in royal ledgers, which show that his son Thomas of Westminster followed the same career. His work, principally in Westminster Palace and Westminster Abbey, included the decoration of the walls and ceiling of the Painted Chamber, the painting and gilding of royal tombs and the construction of the Coronation Chair to house the Stone of Scone.

Walter of Durham was already established as a master painter by 1265, when he is known to have painted statues in Westminster Palace for Henry III. The following year he restored murals, destroyed by the palace fire of 1263, in what later became known as the Painted Chamber. In 1270 he was appointed to a royal serjeanty and had the unofficial role of pictor regis. He performed the normal duties of a medieval painter, which included carpentry. Under Henry III, he and his workshop continued to work in the Palace and in Westminster Abbey, also designing a barge for the queen, Eleanor of Provence.

He continued work in Westminster Palace in 1289 under Edward I, making further repairs to the Painted Chamber in the 1290s. In Westminster Abbey in the 1290s he decorated the tombs of Henry III and Eleanor of Castile, the wife of Edward I; at Blackfriars he painted the tomb for her heart. His last recorded commission between 1297 and 1300 was the Coronation Chair, a wooden throne, decorated with paintwork and gilding. It was installed in Westminster Abbey next to the shrine of Edward the Confessor and housed the Stone of Scone, which Edward I had captured from the Scots in 1296.

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