The Golden Age of Cornish Art
Alfred WALLIS

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Coming into Harbour
19.5 x 35cm oil on card SOLD

Alfred Wallis (1855-1942)
Born in Devonport in 1855, Alfred Wallis was to become a sailor, fisherman and artist inextricably connected with the 20th century artistic movement in St Ives. Having survived the poverty and attendant risks in his Penzance childhood, Wallis lived the tough life on transatlantic schooner passages and fishing expeditions. Following his wife’s death in 1922, Wallis took up painting naive compositions where perspective is ignored and scale is variable. Using any available material, including cardboard, he made marine paintings from memory and featuring vessels under sail. By 1928 Ben Nicholson and others came to St Ives and started the artistic colony of which Wallis became a significant part.