Cleveland native Walter Sinz worked in a variety of media, including metal, stone, wood, and ceramic. He was the son of a lithography instructor at the Cleveland School of Art and learned printmaking at an early age from his father. After a year apprenticeship in an architect’s office, he entered the Cleveland School of Art in 1907, studying sculpture under Herman Matzen and later becoming Matzen’s assistant. Sinz taught lithography and sculpture at the school, 1911–52, when he retired to work on sculptural commissions. He exhibited in the annual May Shows held at the Cleveland Museum of Art (1919–66). In 1924 he took a leave of absence from teaching to study at the Académie Julian in Paris. From 1928 to 1931 he produced ceramic sculpture at the Cowan Pottery studios. From the 1930s to the 1960s, he received numerous commissions for portrait busts, architectural ornament, and monumental sculptures. The Cleveland Society of Artists organized a retrospective exhibition of his work in 1958.
Transformations in Cleveland Art. (CMA, 1996), p. 237