Walter Liedtke was known as one of the world's leading scholars of Dutch and Flemish paintings.
14 Facts About Walter Liedtke
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Walter Liedtke died in the 2015 Metro-North Valhalla train crash.
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Walter Liedtke studied Art History, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967 from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, a Master of Arts degree in 1969 at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
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Walter Liedtke received a Doctorate at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.
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Walter Liedtke said that his interest in Dutch paintings began because he was focused on images as a child from hours and hours of watching a lot of TV.
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Walter Liedtke described his aesthetic as that of having a focus on how he responded to visual patterns compared to a more typical perspective focused on story and narratives.
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For two years Walter Liedtke taught at the Florida State University, then at the University's villa in Florence.
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Walter Liedtke organized numerous exhibitions, wrote seven books, including several on Rembrandt and Vermeer, and produced catalogues of the Museum's Dutch and Flemish paintings.
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Walter Liedtke served as a curator of European Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for thirty-five years.
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Walter Liedtke specialized in the paintings of Vermeer and the Delft School.
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The 2001 Walter Liedtke-curated show, "Vermeer and the Delft School" was said to be the most popular art exhibition that year, attracting 555,000 visitors during its three-month run.
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Walter Liedtke was married to Nancy Walter Liedtke a math teacher, artist, and equestrienne.
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Walter Liedtke commuted daily from the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the Upper East Side neighborhood of New York City to what he called "the countryside," Bedford Hills, New York in Westchester County.
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Walter Liedtke said that he thought there was something "Dutch" about the way he lived: the idyllic countryside, his 100-year-old home, and his art collection, which he said was quintessentially Dutch in character.