Alfred Wallis
Born – Devonport, England 1855
Died – Madron, France 1942
Alfred Wallis worked as a Cornish fisherman from 1880. In 1925, grieving and lonely after the death of his wife, he started to paint. By this time he was in his sixties. He was discovered by Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood in 1928 and his primitive style had a big impact on the art movement that sprang up around the St Ives painters in Cornwall. His scenes of fishing life, with harbours, ships and lighthouses, were not drawn directly from life but from his memories and experiences. In St Ives, Wallis surveys the promontory from a high viewpoint. Appropriately, for a painting of a fishing village, the work is painted in oil and ship paint. Painted on a rough, cut-out piece on board, the work has a feeling of commemoration about it, enhanced by a directness normally associated with children’s drawings. Its simple, clean lines make effective use of strong colour and white. Despite becoming the best-known British naïve artist, Wallis was poverty-stricken and died in a workhouse.
Masterpieces:
- The Old House, St Ives
- Wreck of the Alba
Text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.
Books About alfred wallis
Alfred Wallis: Primitive
Sven Berlin
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St. Ives Artists: Alfred Wallis
Matthew Gale
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Alfred Wallis
Robert Jones
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