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Folk art has long been popular in the United States but Britons have been slow to recognize its worth. The recently-opened Crane Gallery, housed in rooms above a row of shops in Sloane Street, is setting about putting things right. Own by Hungarian-born art dealer. Andres – whose own remarkable collection of naive art is frequently loaned to exhibitions here and abroad – the gallery is decorated in the style of a private home, complete with sitting-rooms and bedroom. Small-print wallpapers provide charming backgrounds for pictures and an open fire offers a glowing welcome in the dinning-room.

Naïve art flourished between the mid-eighteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century and never pretended to be anything else. Yet as a contemporary record of everyday life, particularly in rural communities, such work has a validity which is far more reliable than theories of social historians and similar latter-day pundits.

Most of the artists were itinerants, often sign-painters, who earned extra money by painting domestic scenes, from farmers’ prize bulls to local taverns. Sailors were amongst the most direct of these artists and work by ‘pierhead painters’ are in great demand. Such delightfully primitive paintings have a natural affinity with the simple country furniture and quilts of the period, and Crane Gallery combines both to decorative effect. Altogether, a welcome and imaginative change for the sttufy and pretentious art galleries that abound in London. Parker adapts lifestyle, setting the stage for any mood, any occasion. Made to last a lifetime, it is strong enough for families, elegant enough for guests. An exotic change’s of place.

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