Schooner and Cliffs is an exceptional example of Alfred Wallis' unique contribution to the development of Modern British Art. Wallis is an enigmatic figure, who only started to paint in 1925, at the age of seventy; ‘for company’ following the death of his wife. From memory he painted the experiences of his life, the voyages he had gone on, the town of St Ives and the coastline of his native Cornwall. Wallis' paintings are rich in nautical detail, contain a lifetime's worth of maritime experience and also depict a simple seafaring way of life that has now been lost.

The present work is a striking painting which depicts a schooner tossed upon a lively rough sea, which Wallis has painted in only tones of white and black. A dark stormy sky and the perilous proximity of two black cliffs looming over the schooner imbues the work with a powerful and dramatic atmosphere. The rough card on which the present work is executed is tacked using small nails to the wooden lid of a Wills tobacco box. Two works in the collection of Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, show this same method, Land, Fish and Motor Vessel and Two Boats Moving Past a Big House

Schooner and Cliffs was formerly in the collection of Lucy Wertheim, a gallery owner and patron of the arts, who formed the ‘Twenties Group’ a collection of young British painters including Christopher Wood who was highly influenced by Wallis work after discovering his painting whilst visiting St Ives with Ben Nicholson in 1928. Wertheim was also an early collector of Wallis’ work, his first solo exhibition was held at her gallery in 1931. The present work was exhibited in the Arts Council of Great Britain show Alfred Wallis in 1968, a major survey of Wallis life and work. It was acquired after the exhibition and has remained in the same private family collection since.