Alfred Wallis (1855-1942)
Biography of the painter Alfred Wallis (1855-1942)
Alfred Wallis (1855-1942) was a Cornish fisherman and artist. In the early
1870s, he became a mariner in the Merchant Service.
He married in 1876, when he was
20 and his wife 41, and became step father to her five children. The family moved
to St Ives in 1890 where he established himself as 'Wallis, Alfred. Marine Stores
Dealer'. Following his wife's death in 1922, Wallis took-up painting, as he later
told Jim Ede 'for company'.
Wallis' paintings are a fine example of naive art; perspective is ignored and
an object's scale is often based on its relative importance, which gives his paintings
a map-like quality.
Wallis painted his seascapes from memory in large part because
the world of sail, which he knew, was in transition and being replaced by steamships.
As he said, his subjects were "what use to bee out of my memery what we may never
see again".
Having little money, Wallis improvised with materials, mostly painting
on cardboard ripped from packing boxes and using a limited palette of paint bought
from ship's chandlers.
In 1928, Ben Nicholson and Kitt Wood came to St Ives where they were delighted
to discover Wallis and celebrated his direct approach to image making. Wallis was
propelled into the circle of some of the most progressive artists working in Britain
in the 1930s.
Related Fine Art Categories
Alfred Wallis (1855-1942)
Related Lots
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Alfred Wallis [1855-1942] - The Mariners - oil on paper (half a brown envelope) 21 x 22cm Inscribed on the reverse by Michael snow with provenance.
Estimate: £7,000 - £10,000
Realised: £6,800
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