Blurring the boundary between objectivity and lived experience, Walker highlights often overlooked jobs performed by women and the psychologically charged spaces they inhabit.

“The subject of my paintings in its broadest sense is women’s experience, whether that is the imagined interior life of a glimpsed shop worker, a closely observed portrayal of my mother working in the family home, or women I’ve had the privilege of spending time with in their place of work. From the anonymous to the highly personal, what links all these subjects is an investigation of an experience which is specifically female.”

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Introduction

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Caroline Walker is a contemporary British painter known for her quietly powerful figurative works that explore the lives, environments, and labor of women. Born in 1982 in Dunfermline, Scotland, she studied painting at the Glasgow School of Art before completing a Master’s degree at the Royal College of Art in London.

Walker emerged in the early 2010s as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary figurative painting, gaining increasing recognition from museums, collectors, and critics alike. Her paintings frequently depict women in spaces of work—hotel housekeepers, shop assistants, florists, nail technicians, or domestic workers—captured in moments of concentration, repetition, or quiet solitude. Through these scenes, Walker constructs a subtle yet incisive reflection on gender, labor, and the social structures that shape everyday life.

Technique and Visual Language

Walker works primarily in oil on canvas, employing a meticulous yet fluid painting technique that balances observation and atmosphere. Her compositions are often built from photographic studies taken on location, allowing her to capture authentic gestures and environments while retaining the painterly depth of traditional figurative practice.

Light plays a central role in her work. Windows, mirrors, and reflective surfaces frequently structure the compositions, creating layered perspectives and a sense of voyeuristic observation. The viewer is often positioned as a distant witness, observing private or overlooked moments of daily work.

Her palette tends toward muted and natural tones—soft blues, greys, and warm interior hues—reinforcing the quiet intimacy of the scenes. Rather than dramatic narratives, Walker focuses on small gestures: the folding of linens, the careful arrangement of flowers, the repetitive motions of service work.

Themes: Visibility and the Hidden Labor of Women

At the heart of Walker’s work lies a profound interest in visibility. Many of the women she portrays perform forms of labor that remain socially invisible despite being essential to contemporary life. By placing these subjects at the center of large-scale paintings, Walker restores a sense of dignity and presence to individuals and professions often overlooked. Her paintings also explore the intersection of private and public spaces. Hotels, beauty salons, greenhouses, kitchens, and shop interiors become stages where identity, gender roles, and social hierarchies quietly unfold. The works carry a sociological dimension without becoming overtly political; instead, they operate through empathy and observation.

“My paintings are formalized fictions concerned with the strange or ambiguous which can arise in the everyday and the banal. They explore the notion of disappointed expectations and a kind of faded grandeur of what could have been.”

Previously encompassing locations such as Los Angeles, Palm Springs and the UK, Walker’s scenes hint at the complexity of her subjects’ lives whilst completely avoiding narrative resolution. Recent works have seen Walker cast her eye to her immediate surroundings in East London, reflecting on her wider community and the significance of encounters with anonymous individuals who are nevertheless integral to our daily existence. Often exploring the notion of ‘women’s work’, the artist captures specific spaces such as pharmacies, tailors, beauty salons, laboratories, bathhouses and modernist apartments. 

Institutional Recognition and Exhibitions

Walker’s work has rapidly gained institutional recognition. Her paintings have been exhibited in leading museums and galleries, including the Tate, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and the Kunstmuseum Den Haag. Major exhibitions such as Janet at the The Hepworth Wakefield have further established her reputation, highlighting the depth of her research into specific working environments and communities of women.

Walker’s paintings are now held in important public and private collections, reflecting her growing international reputation. Institutions including the Tate and the Arts Council Collection have acquired her works, confirming her importance within the current revival of figurative painting.

On the market, Walker’s works have attracted increasing attention from collectors interested in contemporary figurative artists whose practices combine strong narrative depth with refined painterly technique. Her paintings resonate particularly with audiences interested in socially engaged portraiture and the renewed prominence of figurative painting in the 21st century.

Caroline Walker’s work stands at the intersection of social observation and painterly tradition. By focusing on women whose labor is often unseen, she expands the possibilities of contemporary figurative painting, transforming everyday scenes into quietly monumental images. Her paintings remind viewers that the ordinary spaces of modern life—hotel rooms, salons, kitchens, shops—contain stories worthy of careful attention. Through subtle compositions and attentive observation, Walker elevates these moments into lasting visual narratives, reinforcing the enduring power of painting to illuminate the structures of everyday life.

 

PART I: SUMMARY

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Auction Market Overview

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2025 AUCTION STATISTICS
Turnover: USD 640,187
-52.1% vs. 2024
# Lots sold: 15
Sell-Through Rate: 100%

MARKET SEGMENTATION
London (60%) / New-York (34.6%) / Seoul (5.4%)

Highest Price Achieved at Auction:
GBP 927,100 / USD 1,106,8520
(2 March 2023)

 

Paintings of Caroline Walker started to sell at auction in 2021. 2022 was a record year for the artist with a strong increase in inventory sold at auction and increasing prices.

Auction Summary

 

2025 Auction Highlights

15 lots sold at auction in 2025 for a total turnover of USD 640,187. With no lot failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 100%. The highest price for 2025 was achieved by Table Laying, Late Morning, May 2020, a large work on canvas dated 2020, sold at Sotheby’s in London, on 17 October 2025, for GBP 165,100 (USD 221,235).

2025 Top 3 Lots

2 lots sold for more than USD 100,000, generating a cumulative turnover of USD 334,634, representing 52.3% of the total turnover for 2025.

2024 Auction Highlights

20 lots sold at auction in 2024 for a total turnover of USD 1,335,177. With 6 lots failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 77%. The highest price of 2024 was achieved at Christie’s in London on 7 March 2024, when Ward Round I, a painting dated 2012, sold for GBP 189,000 (USD 239,652).

2024 Top 3 Lots

5 lots sold for more than USD 100,000, generating a cumulative turnover of USD 772,365, representing 57.8% of the total turnover for 2024.

2023 Auction Highlights

36 lots sold at auction in 2023 for a record turnover of USD 8,713,142. With only one painting failing to sell, the sell-through rate is a strong 97%. A new world record was also set for the artist with her painting Threshold selling at Phillips in London on 2 March 2023 for GBP 927,100.

2023 Top 5 Lots

11 paintings from the top 15 are sold in London even though the artist is also selling in Hong-Kong and New-York.

2022 Auction Highlights

20 lots sold at auction in 2022 for a total turnover of USD 4,831,523. With no lot failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 100%. The highest price was achieved at Sotheby’s in London on 14 October 2022 for Indoor Outdoor, a painting dated 2015 that sold for GBP 529,200 (USD 593,273).

2022 Top 3 Lots

4 lots sold for more than USD 500,000, generating a cumulative turnover of USD 2,190,887, representing 45.3% of the total turnover for 2022. 12 lots sold for more than USD 100,000, generating a cumulative turnover of USD 4,427,526, representing 91.6% of the total turnover for 2022.

 

 

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Top Lots

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#1. Threshold, 2014

Phillips London: 2 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 200,000
GBP 927,100 / USD 1,106,8520

Caroline Walker – 20th Century & Contem… Lot 8 March 2023 | Phillips

 

 

PART II: AUCTION RESULTS

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2026 Auction Results

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Imaginative Play I, 2024

Christie’s London: 5 March 2026
Estimated: GBP 180,000 – 250,000
GBP 215,900 / USD 288,420

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Imaginative Play I | Christie’s

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Imaginative Play I, 2024
Oil on linen
74-7/8 x 96-1/2 inches (190.3 x 245.2 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ”IMAGINATIVE PLAY I’ Caroline Walker 2024′ (on the reverse)

Three Times Removed, 2011

Phillips London: 7 March 2026
Estimated: GBP 12,000 – 18,000
GBP 15,480 / USD 20,680

Caroline Walker Modern & Contemporary Art

CAROLINE WALKER
Three Times Removed, 2011
Oil on board
14 1/4 x 18 7/8 inches (36.2 x 48 cm)
Signed, titled and dated
”Three Times Removed’ CAROLINE WALKER 2011 Caroline Walker’
on the reverse

 

 

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2025 Auction Results

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15 lots sold at auction in 2025 for a total turnover of USD 640,187. With no lot failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 100%. The highest price for 2025 was achieved by Table Laying, Late Morning, May 2020, a large work on canvas dated 2020, sold at Sotheby’s in London, on 17 October 2025, for GBP 165,100 (USD 221,235).

2025 Top 3 Lots

2 lots sold for more than USD 100,000, generating a cumulative turnover of USD 334,634, representing 52.3% of the total turnover for 2025.

 

 

#1. Table Laying, Late Morning, May, 2020

Sotheby’s London: 17 October 2025
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 165,100 / USD 221,235

Table Laying, Late Morning, May | Contemporary Day Auction | 2025 | Sotheby’s

CAROLINE WALKER (b. 1982)
Table Laying, Late Morning, May, 2020
Oil on canvas
73 x 98 1/2 inches (185×250 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2020 (on the reverse)

#2. Study for Troupes, Backstage I, 2024

Christie’s New-York: 20 November 2025
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 114,300
WORK ON PAPER

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Study for Troupes, Backstage I | Christie’s

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Study for Troupes, Backstage I, 2024
Oil on paper
19 1/2 x 14 1/8 inches (49.5 x 35.9 cm)
Signed, titled and dated
”Study for Troupes, Backstage I’ Caroline Walker 2024′
(on the reverse)

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USD 100,000

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#3. Study for Aperitivo II, 2019

Christie’s New-York: 15 May 2025
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 63,000

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Study for Aperitivo II | Christie’s

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Study for Aperitivo II, 2019
Oil on paper
16 1/4 x 21 1/8 inches (41 x 53.6 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘STUDY FOR APERITIVO II Caroline Walker 2019’ (on the reverse)

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USD 50,000

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#4. Study for Amusements, 2024

Christie’s London: 6 March 2025
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 35,280 / USD 45,185

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Study for Amusements | Christie’s

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Study for Amusements, 2024
Oil on paper
17 1/4 x 24 3/8 inches (43.7 x 62 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ”Study for Amusements’ Caroline Walker 2024′ (on the reverse)

#5. Study for Habitat, 2014

K Auction Seoul: 26 November 2025
Estimated: KRW 41,000,000 – 100,000,000
KRW 44,000,000 (Hammer)
KRW 50,600,000 / USD 34,510

KA-Search:caroline walker

CAROLINE WALKER
Study for Habitat, 2014
Oil on canvas paper
23 5/8 x 18 1/2 inches (60×47 cm)

#6. St Paul’s Road 5.45pm, 2009

Phillips London: 3 December 2025
Estimated: GBP 10,000 – 15,000
GBP 20,640 / USD 27,210

Caroline Walker New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art

CAROLINE WALKER
St Paul’s Road 5.45pm, 2009
Oil on board
7 x 7 3/4 inches (17.8 x 19.6 cm)
Signed, titled and dated
”St Paul’s Road 5.45 pm’ CAROLINE WALKER 2009 Caroline Walker’
on the reverse

#7. Blow Dry Study, 2017

Christie’s London: 6 March 2025
Estimated: GBP 15,000 – 20,000
GBP 18,900 / USD 24,205
WORK ON PAPER

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Blow Dry Study | Christie’s

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Blow Dry Study, 2017
Oil on paper
15 1/4 x 12 1/4 inches (38.7 x 31.1 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘BLOW DRY STUDY Caroline Walker 2017.’ (on the reverse)

#8. Untitled, 2009

Phillips London: 18 October 2025
Estimated: GBP 10,000 – 15,000
GBP 18,060 / USD 24,200

Caroline Walker Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale

#9. The Wig Room 1pm, 2009

Phillips online: 24 October 2025
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 16,770 / USD 22,335

Caroline Walker Modern & Contemporary Art: Online Auction, London

CAROLINE WALKER
The Wig Room 1pm, 2009
Oil on board
11 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches (30×35 cm)
Signed, titled, inscribed and dated
‘Benjamin Franklin House ‘The Wig Room 1pm’ C.Walker 2009 Caroline Walker’
on the reverse

#10. Twin Room, 2004

Phillips online: 11 March 2025
Estimated: USD 15,000 – 20,000
USD 21,590

Caroline Walker – Modern & Contemp… Lot 138 February 2025 | Phillips

#11. Monarch of the Glen, 2004

Phillips New-York: 2 July 2025
Estimated: USD 10,000 – 15,000
USD 17,780

Caroline Walker Modern & Contemporary Art: Online Auction, New York

#12. Study for Second Opinion, 2011

Christie’s London: 26 June 2025
Estimated: GBP 12,000 – 18,000
GBP 10,080 / USD 13,800
WORK ON PAPER

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Study for Second Opinion | Christie’s

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Study for Second Opinion, 2011
Oil on canvas paper
12×16 inches (30.5 x 40.5 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ”Study for Second Opinion’ Caroline Walker 2011′ (on the reverse)

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USD 10,000

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#13. Housekeeping II, 2018

Christie’s online: 28 February 2025
Estimated: USD 8,000 – 12,000
USD 6,048
WORK ON PAPER

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Housekeeping II | Christie’s

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Housekeeping II, 2018
Ink on paper
18×12 inches (45.7 x 30.5 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Housekeeping II Caroline Walker 2018.’ (on the reverse)

#14. Untitled, 2009

Phillips online: 24 October 2025
Estimated: GBP 2,000 – 3,000
GBP 2,322 / USD 3,090

Caroline Walker Modern & Contemporary Art: Online Auction, London

CAROLINE WALKER
Untitled, 2009
Graphite on paper
11 3/4 x 16 1/2 inches (29.8 x 42 cm)

#15. Untitled, 2009

Phillips London: 18 October 2025
Estimated: GBP 2,000 – 3,000
GBP 1,935 / USD 2,600

Caroline Walker Modern & Contemporary Art Day Sale

CAROLINE WALKER
Untitled, 2009
Graphite on paper
11 3/4 x 16 1/2 inches (29.7 x 41.9 cm)

 

 

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2024 Auction Results

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20 lots sold at auction in 2024 for a total turnover of USD 1,335,177. With 6 lots failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 77%. The highest price of 2024 was achieved at Christie’s in London on 7 March 2024, when Ward Round I, a painting dated 2012, sold for GBP 189,000 (USD 239,652). 5 lots sold for more than USD 100,000, generating a cumulative turnover of USD 772,365, representing 57.8% of the total turnover for 2024.

2024 Top 3 Lots

#1. Ward Round I, 2012

Christie’s London: 7 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 200,000
GBP 189,000 / USD 239,652

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Ward Round I | Christie’s (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Ward Round I, 2012
Oil on linen
82 5/8 x 90 5/8 inches (210 x 230.2 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘”WARD ROUND I” Caroline Walker 2012’ (on the reverse)

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USD 200,000

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#2. Washing Line, Early Morning, May, 2020

Phillips New-York: 15 May 2024
Estimated: USD 150,000 – 200,000
USD 190,500

Caroline Walker – Modern & Contemporary… Lot 322 May 2024 | Phillips

#3. 7:30PM Stoke Newington, 2008

Phillips London: 8 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 80,000 – 120,000
GBP 101,600 / USD 128,829

Caroline Walker – 20th Century & Cont… Lot 116 March 2024 | Phillips

#4. Evening at Beauty Box Study I, 2017

Christie’s New-York: 13 March 2024
Estimated: USD 30,000 – 50,000
USD 107,100

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Evening at Beauty Box Study I | Christie’s (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Evening at Beauty Box Study I, 2017
Oil on paper
25 1/4 x 18 7/8 inches (64.1 x 47.9 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ”Evening at Beauty Box Study I’ Caroline Walker 2017′ (on the reverse)

#5. 14th Floor, 2004

Phillips London: 27 June 2024
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 83,820 / USD 106,284

Caroline Walker – Modern & Contemporary… Lot 65 June 2024 | Phillips

#6. Balconies, 2015

Christie’s London: 9 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 52,920 / USD 68,045

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Balconies | Christie’s (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Balconies, 2015
Oil on card
31 3/8 x 23 1/2 inches (79.8 x 59.6 cm)
Signed and dated ‘Caroline Walker 2015′ (on the reverse)
Signed, titled and dated ”Balconies’ Caroline Walker 2015′ (on the backing board)

#7. Lottie, 2009

Phillips online: 24 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 44,450 / USD 55,340

Caroline Walker – Wired: Online Auction Lot 1 April 2024 | Phillips

#8. Alem III, 2021

Sotheby’s London: 10 October 2024
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 42,000 / USD 54,880

Alem III | Contemporary Day Auction | 2024 | Sotheby’s

CAROLINE WALKER (b. 1982)
Alem III, 2021
Oil on linen
105×80 cm (41 3/8 x 31 1/2 inches)
Signed, titled and dated 2021 (on the reverse)

#9. Untitled, 2003

Phillips London: 3 July 2024
Estimated: GBP 25,000 – 35,000
GBP 38,100 / USD 48,311

Caroline Walker – Modern & Contemporary … Lot 7 June 2024 | Phillips

#11. Cove, 2014

Christie’s London: 27 June 2024
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 32,760 / USD 41,540

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Cove | Christie’s (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Cove, 2014
Oil on board
12 5/8 x 11 7/8 inches (32.1 x 30.1 cm)
Signed twice, titled and dated ”Cove’ Caroline Walker 2014 C. WALKER’ (on the reverse)

#12. Interval, 2012

Phillips London: 8 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 30,480 / USD 39,060

Caroline Walker – 20th Century & Cont… Lot 213 March 2024 | Phillips

#13. Rockpooling I, 2024

Christie’s London: 10 October 2024
Estimated: GBP 8,000 – 12,000
GBP 27,720 / USD 36,220

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Rockpooling I | Christie’s

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Rockpooling I, 2024
Ink on paper
18 3/4 x 14 3/4 inches (47.5 x 37.5 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ”Rockpooling I’ Caroline Walker 2024.’ (on the reverse)

#14. Positions, 2010

Phillips London: 4 December 2024
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 24,130 / USD 30,580

Caroline Walker – New Now: Modern … Lot 142 December 2024 | Phillips

#15. Delivery, 2012

Phillips London: 19 April 2024
Estimated: GBP 18,000 – 25,000
GBP 20,320 / USD 25,766

Caroline Walker – New Now: Modern & Co… Lot 12 April 2024 | Phillips

#16. Living Room, 2013

Phillips London: 11 October 2024
Estimated: GBP 15,000 – 20,000
GBP 19,050 / USD 24,880

Caroline Walker – Modern & Contempo… Lot 204 October 2024 | Phillips

#17. Study for Illuminations, 2012

Christie’s London: 10 October 2024
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 18,900 / USD 24,695

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Study for Illuminations | Christie’s

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Study for Illuminations, 2012
Oil on canvas paper
16 x 20 1/8 inches (40.6 x 51 cm)

#18. Towels, Room 5, 2018

Phillips London: 4 December 2024
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 19,050 / USD 24,145

Caroline Walker – New Now: Modern &… Lot 22 December 2024 | Phillips

#19. A Deed Without a Name, 2010

Phillips London: 3 October 2024
Estimated: USD 20,000 – 30,000
USD 22,860

Caroline Walker – Modern & Contempo… Lot 3 September 2024 | Phillips

#20. Study for Ming Hui, 2019

Christie’s London: 10 October 2024
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 16,380 / USD 21,400

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Study for Ming Hui | Christie’s

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Study for Ming Hui, 2019
Oil on paper
17 1/2 x 14 3/8 inches (44.4 x 36.5  cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘Study for Ming Hui Caroline Walker 2019.’ (on the reverse)

 

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2023 Auction Results

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36 lots sold at auction in 2023 for a record turnover of USD 8,713,142. With only 1 lot failing to sell, the sell-through rate is a strong 97%. A new auction record was set for the artist with her painting Threshold selling at Phillips in London on 2 March 2023 for GBP 927,100 (USD 1,106,852). 11 paintings from the top 15 are sold in London even though the artist is also selling in Hong-Kong and New-York.

6 lots sold for more than USD 500,000, generating a cumulative turnover of USD 4,520,013, representing 51.6% of the total turnover for 2023.

2023 Top 5 Lots

#1. Threshold, 2014

Phillips London: 2 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 200,000
GBP 927,100 / USD 1,106,852

#3. In Every Dream Home, 2013

Sotheby’s London: 1 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 622,300 / USD 748,946

CAROLINE WALKER (b. 1982)
In Every Dream Home, 2013
Oil on linen
200.4 x 290.3 cm (78 7/8 x 114 1/4 inches)
Signed Caroline Walker, titled In Every Dream Home and dated 2013 (on the reverse)

#4. Fragranced, 2019

Phillips London: 13 October 2023
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 565,150 / USD 685,861

Caroline Walker – 20th Century & Con… Lot 38 October 2023 | Phillips

#5. Red Sky Morning, 2013

Sotheby’s London: 27 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 200,000 – 300,000 
GBP 457,200 / USD 583,014

CAROLINE WALKER (b. 1982)
Red Sky Morning, 2013
Oil on linen
200×280 cm (78 3/4 x 110 1/4 inches)
Signed, titled and dated 2013 (on the reverse)

#6. Recreation Pavilion, 2013

Christie’s London: 28 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 200,000
GBP 441,000 / USD 557,169

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Recreation Pavilion, 2013
Oil on linen
110 1/8 x 74 3/4 inches (279.6 x 190 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ”RECREATION PAVILION’ Caroline Walker 2013′ (on the reverse)

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USD 500,000

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#7. Conservation, 2010

Phillips New-York: 17 May 2023
Estimated: USD 150,000 – 350,000
USD 469,900

Caroline Walker – 20th Century & Contempo… Lot 2 May 2023 | Phillips

#8. Logged In, 2019

Sotheby’s London: 2 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 381,000 / USD 454,871

CAROLINE WALKER (b. 1982)
Logged In, 2019
Oil on canvas
180×240 cm (70 7/8 x 94 1/2 inches)
Signed, titled and dated 2019 on the reverse

#9. Maid, 2016

Phillips New-York: 15 November 2023
Estimated: USD 200,000 – 300,000
USD 355,600

#10. Cutting Back, Late Afternoon, October, 2021

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 May 2023
Estimated: HKD 600,000 – 800,000
HKD 2,520,000 / USD 321,708

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Cutting Back, Late Afternoon, October, 2021
Oil on linen
70 7/8 x 94 1/2 inches (180.5 x 240 cm)
Signed, dated and titled ‘CUTTING BACK, LATE AFTERNOON OCTOBER 2021’ (on the reverse)

#11. Fishing, 2017

Sotheby’s New-York: 19 May 2023
Estimated: USD 200,000 – 300,000
USD 304,800

CAROLINE WALKER (b. 1982)
Fishing, 2017
Oil on linen
98×78 inches (249 x 198.1 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2017 (on the reverse)

#12. Chess, 2016

Christie’s London: 13 October 2023
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 189,000 / USD 229,369

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Chess, 2016
Oil on linen
71×61 inches (180.2 x 155.1 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘CHESS 2016 Caroline Walker’ (on the reverse)

#13. Reception, 2013

Phillips London: 30 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 200,000
GBP 177,800 / USD 225,949

Caroline Walker – 20th Century to Now Lot 3 June 2023 | Phillips

#14. Exotic Dusk, 2013

Christie’s London: 29 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 50,000 – 70,000
GBP 163,800 / USD 206,535

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Exotic Dusk | Christie’s (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Exotic Dusk, 2013
Oil on linen
24 x 32 1/8 inches (61.1 x 81.5 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ”EXOTIC DUSK’ Caroline Walker 2013′ (on the reverse)

#15. Remarks on the Golden Bow, 2010

Christie’s London: 1 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 126,000 / USD 151,642

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Remarks on the Golden Bow | Christie’s (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Remarks on the Golden Bow, 2010
Oil on canvas
70 7/8 x 87 3/4 inches (180×223 cm)
Signed twice, titled and dated ‘“Remarks On The Golden Bow’ 2010 Caroline Walker C. WALKER’ (on the reverse)

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USD 100,000

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#16. Sunday Evening, 2021

Christie’s New-York: 10 November 2023
Estimated: USD 100,000 – 150,000
USD 151,200

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982) (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Sunday Evening, 2021
Oil on canvas
49 1/4 x 39 3/8 inches (125.1 x 100 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘SUNDAY EVENING 2021 Caroline Walker’ (on the reverse)

#17. Study for Training II, 2017

Christie’s New-York: 12 May 2023
Estimated: USD 60,000 – 80,000
USD 151,200

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Study for Training II | Christie’s (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Study for Training II, 2017
Oil on paper
22 3/8 x 17 7/8 inches (56.8 x 45.4 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘STUDY FOR TRAINING II Caroline Walker 2017’ (on the reverse)

#18. Patrol, 2012

Christie’s London: 1 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 113,400 / USD 136,478

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Patrol | Christie’s (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Patrol, 2012
Oil on canvas paper
19 5/8 x 25 5/8 inches (50×65 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ”PATROL’ Caroline Walker 2012.’ (on the reverse)

#19. Sleight of Hand, 2013

Phillips New-York: 16 May 2023
Estimated: USD 50,000 – 70,000
USD 127,000

Caroline Walker – 20th Century & Contem… Lot 306 May 2023 | Phillips

#20. Oasis, 2015

Christie’s online: 9 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 25,000 – 35,000
GBP 94,500 / USD 112,647

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Oasis | Christie’s (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Oasis, 2015
Oil on canvas paper
181/2 x 14 5/8 inches (47 x 37.2 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ”Oasis’ Caroline Walker 2015′ (on the reverse)

#22. Fishbowl Head, 2005

Bonhams London: 29 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 61,360 / USD 77,406

Bonhams : CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982) Fishbowl Head 2005

#24. A Trip to the Zoo, 2005

Bonhams London: 29 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 35,000 – 55,000
GBP 51,200 / USD 64,589

Bonhams : CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982) A Trip to the Zoo 2005

#26. SLIDE, 2012

Phillips London: 13 July 2023
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 40,640 / USD 53,214

Caroline Walker – New Now London Lot 7 July 2023 | Phillips

#27. Sewing, 2019

Phillips London: 12 October 2023
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 40,640 / USD 49,627

Caroline Walker – 20th Century & C… Lot 124A October 2023 | Phillips

#29. The Steam Room, 2013

Christie’s London: 1 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 37,800 / USD 45,492

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), The Steam Room | Christie’s (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
The Steam Room, 2013
Oil on canvas paper
15 x 19 5/8 inches (38×50 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ”The Steam Room’ Caroline Walker 2013.’ (on the reverse)

#31. Ladies Maid, 2013

Sotheby’s London: 16 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 25,000 – 35,000
GBP 31,750 / USD 38,447

Ladies Maid | (Women) Artists | 2023 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (b. 1982)
Ladies Maid, 2013
Oil on canvas paper
14 1/2 x 21 5/8 inches (36.9 x 54.8 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2013 on the reverse

#32. The Manor, 2008

Sotheby’s New-York: 29 September 2023
Estimated: USD 25,000 – 35,000
USD 38,100

The Manor | Between Thought and Expression: Works from the Collection of A.G. Rosen | 2023 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (b. 1982)
The Manor, 2008
Oil on canvas
17 3/4 x 22 1/2 inches (45.1 x 57.2 cm)
Signed and titled (on the overlap); signed and dated 2008 (on the stretcher)

#33. Lottie, 2009

Sotheby’s London: 25 January 2023
Estimated: GBP 6,000 – 8,000
GBP 23,940 / USD 33,986

Lottie | Contemporary Discoveries | 2023 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (b. 1982)
Lottie, 2009
Oil on board
7 x 7 3/4 inches (17.7 x 19.7 cm)
Signed and dated 2009 on the reverse

 

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2022 Auction Results

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20 lots sold at auction in 2022 for a total turnover of USD 4,831,523. With no lot failing to sell, the sell-through rate is 100%. The highest price was achieved at Sotheby’s in London on 14 October 2022 for Indoor Outdoor, a painting dated 2015 that sold for GBP 529,200 (USD 593,273). 4 lots sold for more than USD 500,000, generating a cumulative turnover of USD 2,190,887, representing 45.3% of the total turnover for 2022. 12 lots sold for more than USD 100,000, generating a cumulative turnover of USD 4,427,526, representing 91.6% of the total turnover for 2022.

2022 Top 3 Lots

#1. Indoor Outdoor, 2015

Sotheby’s London: 14 October 2022
Estimated: GBP 60,000 – 80,000
GBP 529,200 / USD 593,273

Indoor Outdoor | The Now Evening Auction | 2022 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (b. 1982)
Indoor Outdoor, 2015
Oil on linen
200×160 cm (78 3/4 x 63 inches)
Signed Caroline Walker, titled Indoor Outdoor and dated 2015 (on the reverse)

#2. Night Scenes, 2017

Phillips London: 14 October 2022
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 516,600 / USD 579,148

#3. Bedding, Room 44, 2018

Christie’s London: 2 July 2022
Estimated: GBP 60,000 – 80,000
GBP 428,400 / USD 516,268

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982) (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Bedding, Room 44, 2018
Oil on canvas
71 x 94 1/2 inches (180.2 x 240 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘BEDDING, ROOM 44 2018 Caroline Walker’ (on the reverse)

#4. The Masquerade, 2012

Phillips Hong-Kong: 1 December 2022
Estimated: HKD 1,000,000 – 1,500,000
HKD 3,906,000 / USD 502,198

USD 500,000

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#5. A Scattering, 2011

Phillips London: 4 March 2022
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 327,600 / USD 432,818

Caroline Walker – 20th Century & Cont… Lot 135 March 2022 | Phillips

#7. Overnighter, 2016

Phillips London: 8 December 2022
Estimated: GBP 70,000 – 100,000
GBP 264,600

Caroline Walker – New Now London Lot 9 December 2022 | Phillips

#8. FRAME, FIGURE, FRAME, FIGURE, 2010

Christie’s online: 18 October 2022
Estimated: GBP 30,000 – 50,000
GBP 277,200 / USD 313,397

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), FRAME, FIGURE, FRAME, FIGURE | Christie’s (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
FRAME, FIGURE, FRAME, FIGURE, 2010
Oil on canvas
71 1/8 x 841/8 inches  (180.6 x 213.6 cm)
Signed twice, titled and dated ”’FRAME, FIGURE, FRAME, FIGURE” C. WALKER 2010 Caroline Walker’ (on the reverse)

#9. Catered, 2017

Christie’s London: 13 October 2022
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 239,400 / USD 271,551

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982) (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Catered, 2017
Oil on linen
59×80 inches (150 x 203.1 cm)
Signed, titled and dated “CATERED Caroline Walker 2017” (on the reverse)aa
Signed ‘Caroline Walker’ (on the stretcher)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Resort, 2017
Oil on canvas
49 1/4 x 39 1/2 inches (125×100 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘RESORT Caroline Walker 2017’ (on the reverse)

#11. Preening, 2018

Christie’s London: 28 June 2022
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 126,000 / USD 153,789

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Preening | Christie’s (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Preening, 2018
Oil on linen, in two parts
Each: 78 3/4 x 55 1/4 inches (200 x 140.2 cm)
Overall: 78 3/4 x 110 3/8 inches (200 x 280.4 cm)
(i) Signed, titled, inscribed and dated ‘PREENING (RIGHT PANEL) Caroline Walker 2018’ (on the reverse)
(i) Signed, titled, inscribed and dated ‘PREENING (LEFT PANEL) Caroline Walker 2018’ (on the reverse)

#12. Clearing, 2014

Christie’s online: 5 July 2022
Estimated: GBP 20,000 – 30,000
GBP 126,000 / USD 150,411

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Clearing | Christie’s (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Clearing, 2014
Oil on linen
541/4 x 74 7/8 inches (145.3 x 190.2 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ”CLEARING’ CAROLINE WALKER 2014 Caroline Walker’ (on the reverse)

#14. Stealing Steps, 2011

Phillips London: 29 June 2022
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 57,960 / USD 70,399

Caroline Walker – 20th Century & Conte… Lot 104 June 2022 | Phillips

#16. Cleaned, 2017

Phillips Hong-Kong: 30 November 2022
Estimated: HKD 300,000 – 400,000
HKD 504,000 / USD 64,573

Caroline Walker – 20th Century & C… Lot 102 November 2022 | Phillips

 

 

PART III: FOCUS

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In Every Dream Home

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Ward Round I, 2012

Christie’s London: 7 March 2024
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 200,000
GBP 189,000 / USD 239,652

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Ward Round I | Christie’s (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Ward Round I, 2012
Oil on linen
82 5/8 x 90 5/8 inches (210 x 230.2 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘”WARD ROUND I” Caroline Walker 2012’ (on the reverse)

Painted in 2012, at a pivotal moment in Caroline Walker’s early career, Ward Round I is a powerful and enigmatic work that sets the stage for her interrogation of the female gaze. It depicts two women asleep on a bed in alternate states of undress, their forms illuminated by a bright white strip light above. Artworks adorn the walls; a dark curtain drapes softly in the background. The face of the woman in the foreground fades into total darkness. Behind, her companion’s identity is only partially more visible. In a rare piece of self-exposure, the latter is modelled on Walker herself. The work was included in the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition In Every Dream Home at Pitzhanger Manor, London in 2013, and is staged in a converted gas station that would later become the Kleine Grosz Museum in Berlin. It simmers with psycho-sexual tension, casting the viewer as voyeur. With the shadows of painting’s history looming above her, Walker meets our gaze, asking us to consider the role of women as both subjects and makers of art.

In Every Dream Home established the fundamental principles of Walker’s practice. Much of the series depicted anonymous female figures going about their daily lives in an idyllic modernist home and garden. Wrought with exquisite attention to lighting, form, color and composition, her protagonists seemed trapped in a world of secrets, their picture-perfect lives filled with ambiguity and suspense. Titled after the 1973 Roxy Music song ‘In Every Dream Home a Heartache’, the series set out to confront the expectations society places upon women, offering scenes of quotidian domesticity in which nothing is quite as it seems. Ward Round I transposes these ideas to a different setting.  The work continues the artist’s fascination with modernist architecture: the gallerist Juerg Judin had converted the space into a studio building that won an architectural award in 2009. Further artworks are revealed in the work’s companion Ward Round II, including a painting by Jannis Kounellis and another by Grosz himself. While photographing the scene, Walker said that the room reminded her of a ‘high-end psychiatric institution’, its clinical lines offsetting her uncertain narrative drama.

Walker’s works are not portraits in the conventional sense. Instead, her subjects play out stories and ideas that relate to universal female experience.

“I paint women because in some ways I am always painting myself, and my own experiences or anxieties,’ she explains, ‘but from a distanced objective position which can hopefully also reflect how we all encounter the world.”

Walker’s own appearance in the present work is particularly illuminating in this regard: so, too, is her frequent use of doubling, reflection and repetition. Drawing upon a rich history of depictions of women—largely painted by men. The present work’s sexual provocations are, in this sense, deliberate: Walker instils a sense of power play between viewer and subject, only to subvert and upend it through her own presence.

Reception, 2013

Phillips London: 30 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 200,000
GBP 177,800 / USD 225,949

Caroline Walker – 20th Century to Now Lot 3 June 2023 | Phillips

Dressed in identical swimming costumes, three women await the arrival of an unknown visitor in Caroline Walker’s Reception. With their faces either partially or completely obscured, two of the women are seated whilst the third opens the door. The seated women stare straight ahead with an almost statuesque rigidity, in symmetrical poses that are echoed by the surrounding furniture. In her exploration of ideas related to space and identity, Walker utilizes a complex understanding of composition and art history, especially evident in the awkward, elevated perspective of the present work. Featured in her first solo exhibition at Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery in 2013, the work is taken from Walker’s In Every Dream Home series, which examines anonymous female domesticity within sleek, luxury environments.

“Although paintings are static I always want to create a sense of something moving, whether that’s a palm tree blowing in the breeze, the gentle rippling of water in a pool, or the suggestion of a person about to leave or enter a scene.”

Although we are only given a partial view into a small reception area, Walker conjures the illusion of more space by creating a room that is full of reflections. The pearlescent surface of the walls and floor mirror foggy impressions that are almost dreamlike; echoing the fleshy color of the swimsuit-clad women in a way that ‘conveys a restrained and unexplained eroticism’. Translucent curtains diffuse the bright light either side of the front door, adding to the sensual and illusory nature of the interior.

Recreation Pavilion, 2013

Christie’s London: 28 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 200,000
GBP 441,000

Caroline Walker (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Recreation Pavilion, 2013
Oil on linen
110 1/8 x 74 3/4 inches (279.6 x 190 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ”RECREATION PAVILION’ Caroline Walker 2013′ (on the reverse)

Included in Caroline Walker’s seminal exhibition In Every Dream Home at Pitzhanger Manor and Gallery, the present work is an extraordinary large-scale painting from the series of the same name. Spanning almost three metres in height, it depicts two women sunbathing by a swimming pool, their faces concealed beneath their wide-brimmed hats. Multiple windows reflect the sparkling blue waters, while a shadowy figure observes the spectacle from the upper floor of the house. Taking its title from the 1973 Roxy Music song ‘In Every Dream Home a Heartache’, the exhibition marked Walker’s solo institutional debut, and propelled her to public acclaim. The paintings, set in and around an idyllic property, offered disquieting snapshots of seemingly picture-perfect lives. Featuring a recurring cast of anonymous, bikini-clad women, the series cemented the subtle interrogation of female roles that would go on to define Walker’s practice. Shrouded in cinematic suspense and psychological ambiguity, Recreation Pavilion captures the virtuosic ambition of her early oeuvre: voyeurism, aspiration and seduction combine in a scene of crystalline poise, saturated with formal and narrative tension.

Fascinated by the unseen lives of women, Walker uses props, lighting and deft spatial manipulation to draw us into her subjects’ interior worlds. In Every Dream Home marked the early flourishing of these techniques, exploiting the sharp lines of Modernist architecture and the distortive properties of water and glass.

“I’d been exploring the notion of the ‘Grand Design’ house and became interested in the idea of dream homes, and what might go on in them. We could be looking at a villa in Dubai, LA, Buenos Aires or just a back garden in London.”

The setting for the series, where Walker conducted photoshoots in preparation, was deliberately intended to be ambiguous: many scenes, including the present, are captured from different angles throughout.  Here, Walker’s staging disorients the viewer further, offsetting lush figuration with near-abstract geometries. Doublings, shadows and reflections confound our gaze, ensnaring us in a world of enigma and dreamlike illusion.

Red Sky Morning, 2013

Sotheby’s London: 27 June 2023
Estimated: GBP 200,000 – 300,000 
GBP 457,200 / USD 583,014

Red Sky Morning | The Now Evening Auction | 2023 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (b. 1982)
Red Sky Morning, 2013
Oil on linen
200×280 cm (78 3/4 x 110 1/4 inches)
Signed, titled and dated 2013 (on the reverse)

Caroline Walker’s Red Sky Morning belongs to a series of paintings exhibited in her first institutional solo exhibition, In Every Dream Home, in London’s Pitzhanger Manor Gallery. As is characteristic of Walker’s now instantly recognizable style, the present work is a voyeuristic glimpse into the fictional days of her unnamed inhabitants, executed with a sense of cinematic desolation. Set against a striking pink sunrise, a silhouette of a modern domestic interior emerges, revealing a woman in the foreground who appears to be tending to an undiscernible object in the shadow. Traces of domestic life are dotted around the room, with a bunch of bananas left on the round glass table, and a chair which seems to have been left un-tucked. Beyond the glass window, there is a bottle set on the outdoor table, perhaps left from the previous night out on the terrace.

CAROLINE WALKER IN HER STUDIO WITH THE PRESENT WORK, 2013
IMAGE: © MARTIN NEWMAN, MIRRORPIX
ARTWORK: © CAROLINE WALKER

Architecture and interior design play an important role in Walker’s paintings, and in the present work, the modern furniture and large, floor-to-ceiling windows create a dramatic and distinctively modernist, domestic scene. Walker has long been interested in the notion of the “Grand Design,” the idea of dream homes and who resides in them. For the exhibition, In Every Dream Home, where the present painting was first shown, Walker was specifically inspired by the story of the Pitzhanger Manor, which was designed by the architect as a dream home for John Soane and his family. Taking on the notion of the perfect house and fictional characters residing in them, each canvas is a modernist dreamscape, populated by Walker’s imagination. Walker’s inclination towards modernist architecture in the present work is part of her investigation of female identity in relation to location. Often depicted alone, isolated within the confines of a private space, Walker’s female subject is compositionally in dialogue with their surroundings.

Threshold, 2014

Phillips London: 2 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 150,000 – 200,000
GBP 927,100 / USD 1,106,852

Caroline Walker – 20th Century & Contem… Lot 8 March 2023 | Phillips

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Resort, 2017
Oil on canvas
49 1/4 x 39 1/2 inches (125×100 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘RESORT Caroline Walker 2017’ (on the reverse)

Painted in 2017, Caroline Walker’s Resort positions the viewer along a walkway in a luxury resort, catching a glimpse of the night shift for a group of female workers tending to the pool area. Like so many of Walker’s works, the present piece focuses on the relationship between women and their surroundings. The immediate foreground is illuminated by a light fixture shining onto a group of bushes acting as a barrier between the viewer and the three women tending to the resort’s nightly ritual. The scene represents a thought provoking juxtaposition of the luscious landscape and amenities alongside the less glamorous processes that go into making a “paradise”. In the morning, the guests of this resort will wake up to find the pool area waiting for them fully stocked with fluffy cushions, clean floors, and a drink just moment away as if just magically maintaining this air of perfection. However, the reality is, a lot of work goes into the dreamy ambiance experienced while on vacation that often goes unnoticed. Walker tackles that subject by bringing those silent, overlooked heroines to the forefront of the canvas, challenging the type of gaze we turn to our world and offering a fascinating take on the structure of our society. Resort appears in the third solo show at Via Maroncelli in Milan entitled NIGHT SCENES. Of all the pieces in the series, the present work contains the most figures, each engaging with each other as they go about their routine. Typical of the artist’s style, this piece conveys the sense of a privileged vantage point, as if the viewer is witnessing a secret moment while the protagonists move through the dark. Resort captures the masterful use of light and elusive nature of NIGHT SCENES while utilizing the popular subject found in her Service series. The piece also showcases a great deal of natural space with the greenery and expansive presence of the ocean creating the perfect accumulation of the contemporary artist’s strengths.

Catered, 2017

Christie’s London: 13 October 2022
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 239,400 / USD 271,551

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982) (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Catered, 2017
Oil on linen
59×80 inches (150 x 203.1 cm)
Signed, titled and dated “CATERED Caroline Walker 2017” (on the reverse)aa
Signed ‘Caroline Walker’ (on the stretcher)

In Caroline Walker’s Catered, a woman stands alone. Her back is turned to the viewer, her face hidden from view. Bathed in light, she is the only human presence upon an otherwise vacant stage: a kitchen strewn with pots, utensils and empty glasses. A dishcloth lies rumpled on worktop sideboard; a pair of yellow washing up gloves gleams brightly upon a rail. Spanning two meters in width, the work belongs to Walker’s 2017 series Night Scenes, which depicts women in lonely, after-hours settings. Some languish at the end of parties; others work long into the night. The present painting, in particular, captures Walker’s fascination with service industries, and the frequently unseen roles that women often play within them. Here, dressed in black and lost in unknowable thought, her protagonist is almost indistinguishable from the shadows and silhouettes around her. Imbued with voyeuristic tension, it is a work of cinematic ambition, played out in Walker’s rich, atmospheric painterly language.

The device of painting the figure from behind, or Rückenfigur, was made famous in Caspar David Friedrich’s majestic Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (1818). Typically, the strategy encourages the viewer to identify themselves with the protagonist, and to experience the scene as if through their eyes. In some ways, Walker extends this notion: ‘I paint women because in some ways I am always painting myself, and my own experiences or anxieties,’ she explains, ‘but from a distanced objective position which can hopefully also reflect how we all encounter the world’ (C. Walker, quoted in D. Woodward, ‘Caroline Walker: In Every Dream Home’, AnOther Magazine, 19 July 2013). At the same time, however, her central character flies in the face of Friedrich’s Romantic hero, her form almost invisible at her kitchen sink. The objects that litter the room, by contrast, seem to sparkle with anthropomorphic life, vying for the viewer’s attention. As foreground and background shift in and out of focus, the figure remains locked in her own world: it is a space we cannot enter, and a private realm that—for all its familiarity—we cannot know.

 

 

 

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Services

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Fragranced, 2019

Phillips London: 13 October 2023
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 565,150 / USD 685,861

Caroline Walker – 20th Century & Con… Lot 38 October 2023 | Phillips

Caroline Walker’s large-scale, enigmatic canvases invite us into private interiors. The Scottish-born artist has gained critical acclaim for her sensitive portrayals of the modern-day woman, and her painterly realism and command for composition create balanced works that make close and careful reference to the Western canon of art history. As a viewer, we are often afforded the position of voyeur; in Fragranced, we peer through a window to see a woman at work in a perfumery.

Exhibited in a major 2021 institutional show Windows, at Kunstmuseum Den Haag (K21), the work is representative of her more recent tendency to highlight the everyday experience of the working woman, which has included shopworkers, bakers, nail artists and cleaners. Perspective is carefully considered in Walker’s compositions. We are at once invited to partake in the scene before us, yet physical and architectural barriers, most frequently windows, prevent us from ever truly being involved. The woman depicted in Fragrance is alone in the shop, and we are permitted to trespass upon a moment of quiet, solitary work. This feeling of intrusion is a major motif within Walker’s oeuvre, and as a result her works are permeated with a tension that reflects the clandestine nature of our position as voyeur. ‘It probably stems from being nosey’ Walker has stated, ‘being delighted when I’m walking around in the evening and can see into houses’.

Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942, Art Institute of Chicago. Image: The Art Institute of Chicago / Art Resource, NY/ Scala, Florence

Much like Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, Walker uses a juxtaposition of the warm interior and cool exterior – with the window acting as a physical barrier – to afford us an unobtainable glimpse into the scene before us. Her large-scale canvases and painterly brushstrokes give works such as Fragranced a soft-focus appearance, and she evokes dreamlike worlds that blur the lines between reality and fantasy: ‘there’s a sense that you could almost step into the scene’. Whilst works like Hopper’s may be considered to contribute to the ‘male-gaze’ of female depiction in art, Walker’s position as a woman adds a nuanced layer of meaning and understanding. We are challenged to reconsider both our position as a viewer, and the subjects we are engaging with.

Piet Mondrian, Composition with Large Red Plane, Yellow, Black, Gray and Blue, 1921, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, The Hague. Image: © Kunstmuseum den Haag / Bridgeman Images

Walker’s extensive art historical knowledge can be seen throughout her pictorial landscapes, usually including the likes of French Impressionist and Modernist masters Edgar Degas or Édouard Manet, or Dutch genre-painters Frans Hals and Pieter de Hooch. Nevertheless, Benno Tempel argues that Walker’s referential intelligence stretches to include the world of abstract art. In his essay accompanying the 2021 Windows exhibition catalogue, Tempel views the paned-windows featured in Fragranced as evocative of the grid-like structures of Piet Mondrian’s neo-plasticist works of the early 20^th century.Certainly, the thick black squares of the windowpanes are reminiscent of the lattices created in works such as Composition with Large Red Plane, Yellow, Black, Gray and Blue. Moreover, a similar use of reds, yellows, blues and blacks in Fragranced’s palette provides a further ‘playful and ingenious nod to this work’.

With exceptional presence, Fragranced represents a wonderful example of many themes Walker explores within her works: women, the working environment, and a nuanced reflection of art history. We are asked to reconsider women’s position within the wider Western art historical canon, alongside our own self-conscious feelings of intrusion. Her quiet, illusory depictions of women often provoke more questions than answers, and the small narrative snapshots we are gifted stay with us long after we have stopped looking.

Preening, 2018

Christie’s London: 28 June 2022
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 126,000 / USD 153,789

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Preening | Christie’s (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Preening, 2018
Oil on linen, in two parts
Each: 78 3/4 x 55 1/4 inches (200 x 140.2 cm)
Overall: 78 3/4 x 110 3/8 inches (200 x 280.4 cm)
(i) Signed, titled, inscribed and dated ‘PREENING (RIGHT PANEL) Caroline Walker 2018’ (on the reverse)
(i) Signed, titled, inscribed and dated ‘PREENING (LEFT PANEL) Caroline Walker 2018’ (on the reverse)

Spanning nearly three meters in width, Preening (2018) is a monumental example of Caroline Walker’s atmospheric portrayals of women. Painted across two canvases, it depicts the gleaming interior of a beauty store, a lone figure captured off guard within. A symmetrical pink design on the double doors simultaneously frames and obscures the scene: the logo, and the woman’s uniform, identifies the shop as Sally Beauty. The work belongs to Walker’s Service series, in which she depicts women in a variety of professional settings: from shops, offices and ateliers to restaurants, hotels and salons. In Preening, a quiet everyday scene becomes a scintillating play of colour, form and depth. Rows of shelves and products create a dazzling, near-abstract geometric framework, advancing and receding within our field of vision as they jostle against the curves of the pink lettering. Though the protagonist appears to be alone, posters and adverts conjure haunting flashes of human presence that challenge the viewer’s voyeuristic position; as we peer deeper into the scene, we sense that we too are being watched. It is a thrilling pictorial and psychological drama that eloquently captures the virtuosic ambition of Walker’s art.

Walker’s Service paintings—examples of which reside in the Arts Council Collection, London, the National Museum Wales and the Kunstmuseum Den Haag—are situated at the heart of a practice devoted to capturing the frequently-overlooked, and often invisible, roles played by women. Drawing on photographic source material, Walker paints a rich spectrum of social and cultural experience, imbuing each of her spaces with cinematic lighting and suspense. Here, the shop appears in the twilit zone between opening and closing; the girl’s arms are poised above her head as if tying up her hair. In this most ordinary of scenes, something strange and miraculous seems about to occur: the store becomes a temple of wonder, the assistant its high priestess. Walker cites artists including Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet as inspiration: the latter’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) resonates particularly strongly with Preening, placing the viewer within a similarly multi-valent position. Echoes of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks (1942), too, linger within the work’s undisclosed narrative. Formally, meanwhile, Walker’s practice invites comparison with artists such as Hurvin Anderson and Andreas Gursky, both of whom use geometry, color and spatial play to capture the social dynamics at work in their quotidian scenes. Walker begins by making drawings and oil sketches that feed into her larger canvases. The vast scale of her works has much to do with their impact, immersing the viewer in the scene.

 

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Janet

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Cornelis Bisschop, Woman Peeling an Apple, 1667 / Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Washing Line, Early Morning, May, 2020

Phillips New-York: 15 May 2024
Estimated: USD 150,000 – 200,000
USD 190,500

Caroline Walker – Modern & Contemporary… Lot 322 May 2024 | Phillips

Washing Line, Early Morning, May, 2020, comes from Caroline Walker’s most personal series, Janet, named for the artist’s mother. The works depict Janet engaged in a variety of domestic tasks, capturing her private world in the artist’s childhood home, honoring the invisible labor performed by women. Rendered in exquisite detail, Walker elevates women’s domestic work through painting. The artist has long been interested in the theme of oft-overlooked female labor, inspired to paint the uncelebrated roles of working women, from cleaners to nail technicians. The Janet series represents a more personal connection to the subject and increased access into this world: for a year, Walker took hundreds of photographs of her mother, which she used as the basis for the series. The works were painted during Britain’s stay-at-home orders in 2020, a time when the artist couldn’t physically be with her mother, so the paintings represent an alternative form of connection between mother and daughter during a time of separation. Walker describes working on this series as “one of the most pleasurable periods of working I’ve ever had.”  She dedicates her monograph for the series to her mother, expressing: “Mum, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed spending so much time with you in the studio, especially when many of these paintings were made in a period where it wasn’t possible to be with you in person.”

In Washing Line, Early Morning, May, Janet spreads a pristine wide white linen sheet on the washing line. The scene is captured with the high level of detail typically reserved for history paintings. In such a light, the task becomes heroic, the painting an act of ennobling the routine of hanging laundry. Walker’s interest in representing people living their daily lives follows in the tradition of artist’s like Mary Cassatt, who was fascinated by the private lives of women, and Dutch Golden Age masters like Johannes Vermeer, whose domestic interiors captured household maintenance. In the present example Walker depicts a moment with such specificity—from the movement of the sheets to the gesture and posture of the artist’s mother—that the viewer feels an acute awareness of the scene as a vivid moment in time.

Cutting Back, Late Afternoon, October, 2021

Christie’s Hong-Kong: 28 May 2023
Estimated: HKD 600,000 – 800,000
HKD 2,520,000 / USD 321,708

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982) (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Cutting Back, Late Afternoon, October, 2021
Oil on linen
70 7/8 x 94 1/2 inches (180.5 x 240 cm)
Signed, dated and titled ‘CUTTING BACK, LATE AFTERNOON OCTOBER 2021’ (on the reverse)

Painted in 2021, Cutting back, late afternoon, October belongs to Caroline Walker’s pivotal series Janet which turns away from painting quotidian moments of other women at work and their lives in the city to looking up-close at the real life of someone the artist is close with and knowing the longest—her mother Janet. Over the course of a year amid the pandemic, Walker armed with a camera following and capturing her mother’s daily domestic routine around the family house in Dunfermline—a home where she grew up in and where her parents have lived for four decades. Rendering in lustrous gold from early sunset and profuse greens in Walker’s skillful loose brushstrokes, the present work captures one of the trivial moments where her mother was alone trimming the bushes and was surrounded by the vivacious vegetation in the tranquil backyard at an early fall afternoon.

Here in the middle of the canvas, Janet was geared with a grass shear tending the garden in broad daylight, a manly task unlike her other household activities like cooking, cleaning, and tidying that are taken place within an enclosed domestic interior. Against the verdant foliage backdrop gently illuminated by the sunlight stream from the side and distanced from the Victoria-style Fife house emerged from the top corner, Walker brings her mother’s invisible forty years of devoted toil forefront of the canvas. Indeed, what emerges from the present work is more than just an austere portrait of domestic labour, it is a tribute and recognition of the unconditional love any mothers have had towards a place called home.

Using light as a great apparatus to envelop the sense of time passing like Dutch Golden Age master Vermeer, Walker not only gives the characters she portrayed luminosity but also reveals the psychological depth beneath their everyday gestures that she has been acutely observed. The interplay of light and shadow with segmented views in Walker’s paintings not only unfolds the cinematic quality, but also the instrumental role photography plays in her practices. Majored in painting at Glasglow School of Art and completed her MA at Royal College of Art by 2009, Walker has since developed her paintings from the photographs taken by her. From the early works that are fictional with staged scenarios enacted by hired models through the angles of upscale modern architecture, to her latest first-hand observation of day-to-day activities of working-class women, Walker is able to, through photography, discern the primary experiences and memories as an author while reading them anew as a spectator.

 

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Other Series

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Imaginative Play I, 2024

Christie’s London: 5 March 2026
Estimated: GBP 180,000 – 250,000
GBP 215,900 / USD 288,420

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982), Imaginative Play I | Christie’s

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Imaginative Play I, 2024
Oil on linen
74-7/8 x 96-1/2 inches (190.3 x 245.2 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ”IMAGINATIVE PLAY I’ Caroline Walker 2024′ (on the reverse)

Rendered on dazzling, immersive scale, Caroline Walker’s Imaginative Play I is an intimate portrait of a hidden world. Included in the artist’s acclaimed exhibition Mothering at the Hepworth Wakefield in 2025, it stands among the finest works in her Nurseries series. These paintings represent some of her most deeply personal creations, depicting children and staff at her daughter Daphne’s nursery in London.

“The special relationships formed between nursery worker and child are so important to the series … In these paintings … this moment is frozen in time.”

Caroline Walker in her studio with the present lot in progress. Artwork: © 2026 Caroline Walker. Courtesy the artist; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London; GRIMM, New York / Amsterdam / London and Ingleby, Edinburgh. All rights reserved, DACS.

Immortalizing a setting almost entirely unrepresented in art, they continue Walker’s fascination with the unseen work undertaken by women. With its theatrical lighting, cinematic mise-en-scène and painstaking detail, the present work celebrates the colorful, sensory wonder of early childhood. At the same time, however, it is tinged with bittersweet introspection, capturing the vital yet fleeting bond between caregivers and their young charges. Closely related to Walker’s previous Nurture cycle, Imaginative Play I takes its place alongside works held in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. and the Sifang Art Museum, China.

The present lot exhibited as part of Caroline Walker: Mothering, 2025. Hepworth Wakefield. Photograph: Michael Pollard.
Artwork: © 2026 Caroline Walker. Courtesy the artist; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London; GRIMM, New York / Amsterdam / London and Ingleby, Edinburgh. All rights reserved, DACS.

Walker’s interest in notions of ‘mothering’ coincided with the beginnings of her own family, with one-year-old Daphne featuring in her work as early as 2021. Her subsequent Birth Reflections series depicted staff and mothers on a maternity ward, while her cycle Lisa captured her sister-in-law with her new baby. It was not until the Nurture and Nurseries series, however, that Walker’s practice truly began to intersect with her own autobiography. Nurture began after the artist moved back to Scotland from London, and depicted a number of local preschool settings: an outdoor nursery, a toddler science club and Daphne’s swimming lessons, as well as her newborn son Laurie.

Nurseries, however, took a step back in time. For this series, Walker returned to photographs taken two years previously at Daphne’s former nursery in London. Working at distance from her source material in this manner emphasized to her ‘the fleeting nature of this important time in children’s young lives’. The relationship between child and nursery worker, she notes, ‘can be very close’ yet is ultimately ‘short-lived’. In her paintings, she explains, ‘this moment is frozen in time’ (C. Walker, quoted at Stephen Friedman Gallery, online).

Mary Cassatt, Children in a Garden (The Nurse), 1878. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Digital image: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston / gift of Mr. and Mrs. Meredith Long / Bridgeman Images.

Imaginative Play I engages directly with these ideas. The painting is suffused with the enigmatic sense of poignancy that defines Walker’s best works, offsetting the joy of children’s play with the complex emotions borne by its facilitators. The artist relishes the details of her toddler world: the bright colours of toys and decor, the play of light upon waterproof coats, the tactile surfaces of wood, plastic and carpet, and the energetic freedom of children’s artwork. ‘The world of small children is a very visual one and a very textural one’, she explains (C. Walker, quoted in Caroline Walker: Mothering, exh. cat. Hepworth Wakefield, 2025, p. 27). The child herself is lovingly observed, her stance, clothes and facial expression alive with character. On the other side of the room, however, her caregiver seems lost in her own imaginative space as she arranges toys upon the floor. For all its playful whimsy, this is her place of work: the site of her daily toil. She carries the weight of the child’s happiness upon her shoulders, in the knowledge that she will be gone from her care in just a few short years.

Lucian Freud, Alice and Okie, 1999. Private collection. Artwork and digital image: © The Lucian Freud Archive.
All Rights Reserved 2026 / Bridgeman Images.

Since its inception, Walker’s practice has interrogated the often overlooked roles played by women in society. She depicts them in a variety of personal and professional settings, capturing private moments of reflection as they go about mundane everyday activities. Drawing inspiration from the histories of art and film, she transforms these quotidian scenes into grand, near-religious tableaux, infused with quiet drama and subtle psychological tension. Her engagement with the idea of ‘mothering’ speaks to the complexities at the heart of her practice, interrogating not only the unseen work of parenthood but also the childcare service industry. While artists such as Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot had painted mothers and nursemaids, Walker’s depiction of nurseries speaks to a uniquely contemporary phenomenon. During the series, she was conscious that the women she was depicting were the very reason she was able to continue her own work as an artist. The present painting’s protagonist is arguably a reflection of her own conflicted feelings, her thoughts lost in a universal space where life and labor seamlessly intermingle.

14th Floor, 2004

Phillips London: 27 June 2024
Estimated: GBP 40,000 – 60,000
GBP 83,820 / USD 106,284

Caroline Walker – Modern & Contemporary… Lot 65 June 2024 | Phillips

Maid, 2016

Phillips New-York: 15 November 2023
Estimated: USD 200,000 – 300,000
USD 355,600

Caroline Walker – 20th Century & C… Lot 323 November 2023 | Phillips

What is the emotional current of this painting? Why is the maid hesitating to enter the room? Is she being surveilled, or is this simply an innocuous moment? These are questions that Walker does not answer but rather leaves open for the viewer to consider. The painting depicts a moment meticulously orchestrated by Walker with a model and location staged for her image. Nevertheless, the fictional narrative implicates its observers, the artist included, in a voyeuristic vantage that challenges the work’s spectatorship.

‘‘I find mirrors and reflective surfaces a very useful device for exploring the things that interest me in painting, particularly thinking about the mirror as a metaphor for the illusory space of painting itself.’’

Maid was included in Walker’s 2016 exhibition at GRIMM gallery in Amsterdam titled The Racquet Club, named after a popular Palm Springs resort which opened in 1934 and which was demolished in 2014. Palm Springs, California—a desert city set amongst the San Jacinto Mountains—is famous for its midcentury modern architecture and design. Once developed for Los Angeles’ upper class and Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1920s, Palm Springs embodies an artificial sense of “the good life”; it is this sense of a contrived paradise which gives it an eerie impression, suggesting a darker psychological undercurrent which has inspired authors and filmmakers alike. Maid embodies the foreboding energy of The Racquet Club works with its depiction of the watcher and the watched. In representing both hotel goers and the staff that serve them, Walker creates a filmic narrative that elaborates upon her interest in showing women’s work, more specifically the kind of work that is often overlooked or wrongly devalued by society. At the same time, Walker’s paintings resist full narrative resolution, and in doing so, hint at the complexity of her subjects’ lives. What we see is what the artist chooses to present, an obscured perspective of two female experiences.

Chess, 2016

Christie’s London: 13 October 2023
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 189,000 / USD 229,369

Caroline Walker (christies.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (B. 1982)
Chess, 2016
Oil on linen
71×61 inches (180.2 x 155.1 cm)
Signed, titled and dated ‘CHESS 2016 Caroline Walker’ (on the reverse)

In her large-scale oil painting Chess (2016), the Scottish artist Caroline Walker grants us an intimate view of a private life. The work depicts a woman leaning on a metal balustrade. Cigarette in hand, she looks towards an unseen point with poise and confidence. Walker veils her subject with the vertical lines of half-closed blinds. The foreground of the painting details a shadowy sitting room, with a chair, a sharp-leaved houseplant and a chessboard. The gleaming board bears a single black chess piece and adds a narrative tension to the work: perhaps the woman is plotting her own next move. Behind her, there is verdant greenery, a sun-kissed palm tree and a patch of azure that suggests a swimming pool. The work forms part of Walker’s Downtown LA series. Simultaneously a portrait of a person and of a place, Chess takes us on a virtuosic journey through a darkened interior to the Californian sun.

Walker has a lifelong interest in depicting domestic interiors: as a child she drew from a makeshift studio in a kitchen cupboard. The scenes she paints today often center on women at work, at home or both.

“I paint women because in some ways I am always painting myself, and my own experiences or anxieties,’ she explains, ‘but from a distanced objective position which can hopefully also reflect how we all encounter the world.”

In this, Walker follows the precedent of 19^th-century French realist and Impressionist painters like Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas, whose works often captured the relationship between humans and the modern city. In focusing on women within the home, she also extends an art-historical tradition that stretches back to Golden Age Dutch genre painters such as Johannes Vermeer. Like Vermeer’s works, Chess combines psychological penetration and pin-sharp detail to bring a moment in time to life.

Fishing, 2017

Sotheby’s New-York: 19 May 2023
Estimated: USD 200,000 – 300,000
USD 304,800

Fishing | Contemporary Day Auction | 2023 | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (b. 1982)
Fishing, 2017
Oil on linen
98×78 inches (249 x 198.1 cm)
Signed, titled and dated 2017 (on the reverse)

Alluringly cinematic and voyeuristic, Fishing embodies the masterful depiction of social and psychological tension that characterizes Caroline Walker’s singular oeuvre. Caroline Walker is a Scottish-born contemporary visual artist known for paintings of women that reveal the diverse social, cultural and economic experiences of contemporary society. Blurring the boundary between objectivity and lived experience, Walker captures the silent narratives of women and the charged spaces they inhabit. Forming its subject and space with a filmic sense of narrative, Fishing captures the aesthetics of suburban, upper class Los Angeles with a sense of cinematic desolation and rich color palette reminiscent of Edward Hopper deftly blended with the careful observations and loose lyrical brushwork of 19th century artists like Edgar Degas and Édouard Manet. Fishing was prominently featured in the 2018 exhibition Caroline Walker: Sunset at Anat Ebgi.

EDWARD HOPPER, MORNING SUN ,1952. COURTESY OF THE COLUMBUS MUSEUM OF ART.

The sense of narrative in Fishing is driven by Walker’s model, a former Miss America pageant contestant. Walker transforms this figure into that of an actress, playing into the fantasy and cinematic trope of the enviable leisurely life of the Los Angeles woman.

“I had an idea for an aging beauty and tried to imagine where she might live in LA…Once I’d found the house I started developing the character with the help of a friend that lives in LA and worked in the world that I imagined this woman would occupy.”

Despite her attendant, the woman in Fishing appears strikingly isolated within her environment. She is dwarfed by her surroundings and though she faces the viewer, her gaze is obscured by a cast of shadow. She appears as an expressionless cipher, resting in limbo within the vibrant confines and boundaries of her home. Though Fishing captures a carefully composed set, the painting is simultaneously distanced from its photographic origins through painterly gestures that abstract the body and exaggerate psychological space. The scene is awash with brilliant aqua–a glowing cast from the swimming pool dappled in sunlight–and Walker’s paint application retains a loose quality that seems to blur the image, placing equal importance on style and subject and imbuing the image with an enigmatic anonymity.

DAVID HOCKNEY, PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST (POOL WITH TWO FIGURES), 1972, PRIVATE COLLECTION

A paragon of Caroline Walker’s distinct painterly style and conceptual richness, Fishing masterfully combines found imagery, saturated color, memory, imagination, and highly considered photoshoots on location to hint at the complexity of her subject’s life whilst avoiding narrative resolution. The expansive size of the canvas presents a scene that can almost be entered, creating an alluring pull that implicates and involves the viewer in the observed scene.

Conservation, 2010

Phillips New-York: 17 May 2023
Estimated: USD 150,000 – 350,000
USD 469,900

Caroline Walker – 20th Century & Contempo… Lot 2 May 2023 | Phillips

In Caroline Walker’s 2010 painting, Conservation, a woman in her underwear stretches to place an Ancient Greek vase on a floating glass shelf. She stands in a minimal, yet luxurious, interior, with an orchid, cowhide rug, and four mirror-paneled closet doors, which reflect the scene back in on itself. The present work dates to a key point in Walker’s career as an artist, when she shifted from painting scenes of Victorian-style interiors to spaces with more modern architecture. Having grown up in a Victorian home herself, the change in scenery ignited Walker’s curiosity as an artist, and she continued to push themes of perspective, reflection, and interiority.

The abundance of reflective surfaces in the dream home of Conservation—from the closet doors to the glass shelves and table—encourages a sense of prolonged contemplation. Walker utilizes these surfaces to keep the eye moving between objects, their reflections, and fragments of those reflections. The woman acts, and acts in reflection; the viewer views, and views again. The visual device recalls Édouard Manet’s Bar aux Folies-Bergère, 1882, Courtauld Gallery, London, which shows a female bartender at work, and the scene behind her reflected in a bar-length mirror. But where Manet’s work traffics in how the female bartender is seen by her male patrons, Walker inverts the gender of the painter’s gaze. How, she wonders, is it different when it’s a woman looking at women?

Édouard Manet, Bar aux Folies-Bergère, 1882. The Courtauld Gallery, London. Image: © The Courtauld / Bridgeman Images

In Conservation, Walker places the viewer behind a white armchair, a slightly covert position, which allows them to see the woman, and her reflection, perhaps without being seen in return. While Walker jokes that her voyeuristic impulse stems from “being nosy,” there’s also a calm sense of intimacy to the placement of the gaze in Conservation. It is as if we are sitting in the room together with the woman, watching her in a delicate moment of trust; in sheer underwear, her sweater lifting up her midriff, she extends on tiptoe to place the fragile vase.

Logged In, 2019

Sotheby’s London: 2 March 2023
Estimated: GBP 100,000 – 150,000
GBP 381,000 / USD 454,871

Logged In | Modern & Contemporary Day Auction | | Sotheby’s (sothebys.com)

CAROLINE WALKER (b. 1982)
Logged In, 2019
Oil on canvas
180×240 cm (70 7/8 x 94 1/2 inches)
Signed, titled and dated 2019 on the reverse

Imbued with complexity and humanity, Caroline Walker’s Logged In from 2019 perfectly embodies the artist’s mastery of depicting social and psychological tension within contemporary spaces. Moving away from her earlier works set in more traditional Victorian architectural spaces, Walker’s newer oeuvre of paintings within more modern settings allow her to engage deeper with modern living. Her commitment to the contemporary world extends to her working process, with the artist using photographic material of real spaces as catalysts for her personal exploration of spatial memory and atmosphere. Walker’s paintings capture the fictional days of her unnamed inhabitants lounging by the poolside or relaxing within the safeness of home. The paintings provide a voyeuristic view of their lifestyle, executed with a sense of cinematic desolation and rich color palette reminiscent of the great American realist painter Edward Hopper, deftly blended with the careful observations and loose, lyrical brushwork of 19th century artists like Edgar Degas and Édouard Manet.

Afters, 2016

Phillips London: 30 June 2022
Estimated: GBP 60,000 – 80,000
GBP 315,000 / USD 383,025

Caroline Walker – 20th Century & Contemp… Lot 4 June 2022 | Phillips

Strikingly cinematic in its compositional balance, luminously saturated palette, and charged narrative power, Afters captures the tensions between public and private, ambiguity and the everyday that energizes Scottish artist Caroline Walker’s most compelling paintings. Executed on a commanding scale and depicting a woman resting across an elegantly curved metal-framed sofa, a stiletto and watermelon slice casually discarded on the floor beside her, the atmosphere is languorous and intimate, Walker capturing a moment of stillness and solitude that falls between the day’s activities.

Drawn to painting women since she was a young child, Walker takes these quiet moments of unguarded honesty, often of women at work or in their domestic environments, and transforms them into studies in contemporary feminine interiority, carefully blending the eerie stillness of Vilhelm Hammershøi, the voyeuristic frisson of Edward Hopper’s lonely visions of mid-century urbanity, and the understated intimacy of Pierre Bonnard’s portraits.

In this respect, the architectural settings of her paintings also take on special significance, at once framing her subjects and standing in for the intimate boundaries ‘between public behavior and private space’ that Walker’s paintings ask us to explore. More complex in its compositional arrangement than it might at first appear, Afters plays with this spatial ambiguity, taking as its setting the shaded outdoor terrace of a glamourous Palm Springs home, the rigid geometry of the concrete floor and structure of the building acting as both framing device and as a means of amplifying questions of agency, observation, and the politics of looking that characterizes the Palm Springs series to which this work belongs. Caught between the house and the lawn, the terrace occupies a space between inside and outside that is strangely representative of Walker’s own position, and the careful balance of intimacy and intrusion that she maintains in her exquisitely handled paintings.

 

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Prints

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WORK IN PROGRESS

Sunset, 2018

Phillips London: 6 June 2024
Estimated: GBP 12,000 – 18,000
GBP 15,240 / USD 19,495

Caroline Walker – Evening & Day Editions Lot 163 June 2024 | Phillips

Bathed in sumptuous warm light, Caroline Walker’s Sunset portfolio is comprised of four cinematic compositions that capture glimpses into the life of an imagined female figure in her luxurious Los Angeles abode. Evoking both glamour and the everyday, the semi-fictional character is partly inspired by Walker’s model, previously a Miss America beauty queen, whom the artist choreographed amidst a Hollywood Hills home to create the compositions.

Calling

Beyond the warm glow of twilight and the vibrant colors of Modernist décor there is an uncanny, unspoken admission of watching. With their intended cinematic viewpoints, the images follow the attractive young woman moving around the comfort of her home – however, what she doesn’t realize is that she is being observed. In Calling, the woman has her back turned to the audience engaging in a casual telephone conversation at sunset.

Vigil

The vantage point is reversed in the following Vigil, where once again we watch the figure with her back turned. This time we assume she is in her bedroom – a clear imposition on a private moment. The setting of Brushwork is even more intimate, the protagonist appearing in her boudoir as a triplicate, thus intensifying the element of observation.

Bathed

It is only in Bathed where the figure is turned towards the viewer looking back into her house. However, she does not hold at the viewer’s gaze but instead her attention is to the right. Once again, she has not quite escaped our obtruding stare.

Brushwork

Sunset bears familiarity with the work of Edward Hopper, a master of subtle allusion. In his 1931 Hotel Room, we see a woman slumped on the edge of her hotel bed absorbed in thought. She has not yet unpacked – perhaps she is only there for the night – her hat teetering on the cabinet edge as if discarded with careless haste. With hunched shoulders, the woman seems dispirited after reading the piece of paper in her hand, a timetable for trains next day. The formal arrangements in the composition point to a moment of interim, something non-permanent. Moreover, the normality of such a mundane scene creates a realism in the unconsidered daily moments and evokes a thought-provoking introspection. Walker’s images contrast significantly with Hopper’s cool tones, adopting an electric color palette that reflects the Los Angeles scenery and Hollywood glitz. However, the position of the viewer is the same; rendered a voyeur, we once again watch a disrobed woman in quiet contemplation. It is another private moment of solitude upon which we stage our imposition.

Edward Hopper, Hotel Room, 1931, Thyssen Bornemisza Museum, Madrid. Image: Album / Alamy Stock Photo, Artwork: © Heirs of Josephine Hopper / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, DACS, London 2024

Sunset‘s element of voyeurism is enhanced by the fact that Walker intended the images to be filmic, with no specific narrative sequence but a sense of continual flow between the scenes. This, paired with the glamorous Hollywood setting and the sense that we are observing an oblivious character creates a cinematic experience as if watching a movie.

The subject recalls Alfred Hitchcock’s New York-based thriller Rear Window, in which we see James Stewart’s character watching Grace Kelly dance freely in her home through his window. She doesn’t realize she is being watched; it is not a conscious performance but a hidden invasion of privacy, privileging the male gaze at the expense of female subjectivity.