Alfred Wallis

Acquired directly from the artist in St Ives, circa 1930
Private Collection, U.K.
Their sale, Sotheby's London, 23^rd April 1969, lot 140
Waddington Galleries, London, where acquired by the present owners, May 1969

The canvas is undulating slightly but is in good overall condition. The paint surface appears particularly thick. This may be because Wallis has painted over another picture. The paint surface is intentionally uneven. There is some craquelure across the surface and some paint flaking in the upper right quadrant. There appears to be some old slight abrasion to the very edges of the paint surface. This may be old frame abrasion. Examination under ultra-violet light reveals two small spots of retouching which correspond to the areas of flaking. Held in a metal coloured rectilinear frame. 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 'discovery' of an almost illiterate retired mariner turned painter by Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood in St Ives in 1928 is a landmark event in the history of modern art in Britain. Wallis' curious combination of a lifetime's maritime experience and an entirely untutored approach to painting produced work of such freshness that his example immediately began to influence his younger contemporaries and continues to send ripples down to the present day.

Painted on rough pieces of found materials, often card from the packaging of household goods or, as here, an old canvas reused, Wallis' work always captures the experience of the event without the extraneous details that a 'real' artist would include and thus carries with it the joy and vivacity seen in children's painting, but its subject matter is far from the nursery. The hard and perilous life of the nineteenth century mariner is brought vividly to life in his paintings, a life in which, common to the then still remote Cornish world, fundamentalist religion was the rock to which hope was anchored. The present work, with its richly painted sea, is imbued with a sense of the cyclical nature of the mariner's life, the fishing boats returning to harbour whilst others lie at anchor awaiting the next expedition.

It was this sense of the wider narrative within the events depicted, and Wallis' ability to transmit the essentials of his images that was especially appealing to the modernist artists and collectors to whom Nicholson and Wood exposed Wallis' paintings, and although this influence is now well documented, the almost entirely word of mouth spread of knowledge and experience of Wallis' art meant that until the publication of Sven Berlin's monograph in 1949, his importance was relatively overlooked.  

'...we passed an open door in Back Road West and through it saw some paintings of ships and houses on odd pieces of paper and cardboard nailed up all over the wall, with particularly large nails through the smallest ones. We knocked on the door and inside found Wallis' (Ben Nicholson, quoted in Matthew Gale, Alfred Wallis, Tate Publishing, London 1999, p.22)