Alfred Wallis

H.S. Ede, Cambridge
Cyril Caplan, by 1968
Sale, Christie's London, 27th October 1972, lot 14 (as Mid-Ocean: Three-Master With Seabirds at St Ives), whence purchased by the present owner

London, Tate Gallery, Alfred Wallis, 30th May - 30th June 1968, no. 103, with Arts Council tour to York City Art Gallery, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendall, 6th July - 22nd September 1968.

Edwin Mullins, Alfred Wallis, Macdonald, London, 1967, col. pl.VIII.

 

The blotter is in good original condition. The paint surface is in good overall condition. There is no sign of retouching under ultra-violet light. Held behind glass in a simple gilded composition frame. The verso is also visible behind glass. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 5381 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The so-called 'discovery' of Alfred Wallis by Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood in Back Road West, St Ives in 1928 has achieved legendary status. According to Nicholson's account in a 1943 issue of Horizon, Wallis 'had begun painting when he was over seventy, as he said "for company" after his wife had died'. The two artists were immediately fascinated by the old sea mariner's paintings of 'ships and houses on odd pieces of paper and cardboard nailed up all over the wall' and which were 'so childlike' in their artistic style.

The raw creativity and directness conveyed in child art had already been championed by Roger Fry who had organised exhibitions of child art in 1917 and 1924. He urged that children's art exemplified, 'just the kind of invention, just that immediate expressiveness, which we admire so much in primitive art' (Roger Fry, 'Children's Drawings', The Burlington Magazine Vol.XXX, June 1917, p.226).  It was the same 'immediate expressiveness' which Nicholson and Wood found so compelling in Wallis' untaught style, oblivious to traditional one point perspective. 

His use of scrap materials such as the desk blotter employed in the present work added a further immediacy to his style drawing attention to the dynamic interaction between the board itself, the unpainted background and the paint surface. This relationship appealed directly to Nicholson's interest in the physicality of the picture surface which he developed in his first carved board abstracts of the early 1930s.

Robert Jones has also highlighted the accuracy with which Wallis portrayed the features of the boats he painted (see Robert Jones, Alfred Wallis, London 2001, p.8). Wallis had explained to Jim Ede that 'what I do mosley is what use to Bee out of my own memory' (Wallis, letter to Jim Ede, 6th April 1935, Kettle's Yard Archive). As is evident in the present work, despite painting using simplified forms, he demonstrated an acute memory for the boats he had experienced reinforcing the 'immediate expressiveness' instilled in his work.