English School (c.1838), A Valentine portrait of John Walker

English School (c.1838)A Valentine portrait of John WalkerPen, ink and watercolourInscribed and dated John Walker 93rd S. Highlanders/Aged 27/1838' to the lower edge21.8 x 16.7cm (8½ x 6½ in.)Together with a Valentine portrait of John Anderson, 42nd Highlanders, Indian Mutiny and tailor to the regiment; and a Valentine portrait of a soldier of Her Majesty's 21st Regiment, various sizes (3)Provenance:Valentine portrait of John Walker, Robert Young Antiques, London, where purchased by the present owner in 2010 Valentine portrait of John Anderson, Denzil Grant, Suffolk, where purchased by the present owner in 2011Valentine portrait of a soldier, Humbleyard Fine Art, where purchased by the present owner in 2003 To be sold without reserve The Pinkers Collection of British, American and European Folk Art This charming collection of folk art takes its name from a diminutive 17th Century cottage on the Kent coast where it has hung and grown in size over the last twenty years. It includes watercolours and oil paintings from the 17th to the early 20th Century. Many are in their original frames and in remarkably fresh condition. Despite its rural location and the provincial subject matter of the works it is a truly international collection and many of the lots have come from some of the most important collectors and dealers in folk art on both sides of the Atlantic including Robert Young, Denzil Grant and Charles Plante in England and David Wheatcroft, Joan Brownstein and Austin Miller in America.Folk Art has been described as 'the unselfconscious creativity of academically untrained artists' (Robert Young, Folk Art, 1999) and it is this quality that gives many of the works an immediacy and playfulness that has chimed with generations of collectors. Some of the pictures, by journeymen artists, artisans or amateurs are provincial reinterpretations of more sophisticated works, such as the early 18th Century Yate family portraits (lot 122). Others have a joyful disregard of accepted ideas of scale, perspective and colouring, giving them a timeless quality which draws parallels with 20th Century artists including Alfred Wallis and John Nash, such as View from La Moinerie (lot 120) and the American School Portrait of a girl (lot 103) has an Outsider Art quality reminiscent of the Art Brut movement founded by Jean Dubuffet. Regardless of their origins this unique and varied collection is the manifestation of the vision and passion of a true collector.