As reported in ATG No 2496, Hunter was a London gallery owner who, as well as dealing, assembled an impressive collection across various fields including Indian ornithological pictures and Modern British art.
Walker’s half-length portrait of a lady, a 2ft x 20in (61 x 51cm) signed oil on canvas, was estimated at £800-1200 at the sale on May 18 and was an example of her much-admired naturalistic female portraits painted with thick impasto. The subject was thought to be an actress who posed for her a number of times.
While Walker’s works appear fairly often at auction, portraits of this calibre are rarely available and, after drawing strong competition, it was knocked down at £10,800 to a private London buyer bidding via thesaleroom.com.
Only a still-life that took £13,500 at Christie’s in November 2004 has made more for the artist at auction.
