German painter and book illustrator.
He was the son of the Freemason pharmacist Hermann Linde the Elder (7 October 1831, Crossen an der Oder – 11 December 1918, Lübeck). In 1860 he married Katinka Stolle (Aug. 1839, Lübeck), the daughter of the painter Christian Peter Wilhelm Stolle (18 October 1810, Lübeck – 11 September 1887, Lübeck ) and Charlotte Wilhelmine Christine Gloy (2 February 1811, Lübeck – 3 March 1882, Lübeck).
His elder brothers were Max Linde (14 June 1862 – 23 April 1940, both in Lübeck), an ophthalmologist and art collector, and Hermann Linde (26 August 1863, Lübeck – 26 June 1923, Arlesheim), a painter in the Symbolist style.
His father, Hermann Linde the Elder was a pioneer in photography. In 1852, he constructed a Camera Obscura and experimented with the techniques of Louis Daguerre. In 1855, he opened with David Eichmann the “Photographisches Institut” in Lübeck. Among his clients belonged the Mann family (Buddenbrooks), Emanuel Geibel and Fritz Reuter.
Walther, having had his first painting lessons from his grandfather, became a student of Photography at the “Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt” (Graphic Arts and Research Institute) in Vienna. From 1887 to 1889 he worked as a photographer and colorist (adding color to black-and-white photographs) in Cairo. From 1891 to 1894, he studied under Gabriel von Hackl and Paul Hoecker at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. From 1895 to 1898 he visited the Académie Julian in Paris, then travelled extensively, visiting Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain.
After 1900, he lived in Berlin and became a member of the Berlin Secession in 1902, continuing to travel and exhibit widely. He was mostly known for landscapes, still-lifes and children portraits. In addition to paintings, he produced illustrations of the children’s storybooks published by A. Molling & Comp. He also became a professor of art in Berlin.
He died 23 May 1939 in Travemünde.
Most of his works were commissioned by individual clients and remain in private ownership. Other works remained hidden in museum cellars. But summer 2015 the French graffiti artist Julien de Casabianca brought some of his paintings home in Lübeck using photographic techniques..

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