An Austrian painter and art teacher, Walter Langhammer was one of the foremost patrons and critics of the Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group. Born in Graz in 1905, Langhammer fled to India with his Jewish wife Käthe Urbach in 1938, shortly before the Second World War. Although their initial time in the country was turbulent, with the couple being arrested by the British and interned in different cities, they were released once their political leanings were confirmed through evidence in the form of Langhammer’s caricatures.

Langhammer’s artistic practice flourished in India, and he exhibited frequently at the Bombay Art Society. In 1938, Langhammer became chairman of Bombay Art Society; from 1952-53, he was a committee member of the diamond jubilee exhibition of the Society. He worked in collaboration with Kekoo Gandhy in designing frames for paintings at Chemould Frames, later renamed Gallery Chemould. He passed away at the age of seventy-two.