Alfred Wallis

Acquired directly from the artist by Ben Nicholson for 2/6 in August 1928
Given by Ben Nicholson as a gift to Denis Mitchell when Nicholson left St Ives on 4th March 1958 and thence by descent to the present owner

St Ives, Penwith Society, 1959 (catalogue untraced);
London, Tate Gallery, Alfred Wallis, 30th May - 30th June 1968, cat. no.99, with Arts Council tour to York City Art Gallery, Aberdeen Art Gallery and Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendall;
Edinburgh, The Scottish Arts Council, Art Then: Eight English Artists, 1924-40, 17th August - 15th September 1974, cat. no.61;
Penwith, Penwith Galleries, 3rd September - 1st October 1983 (used as the image for the poster for the exhibition);
London, Tate Gallery, St Ives, 13th February - 14th April 1985, cat. no.11;
Dublin, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Two Painters: Works by Alfred Wallis and James Dixon, 1999-2000, cat. no.1, with tour to Tate St Ives.

Edwin Mullins, Alfred Wallis, Macdonald, London, 1967, p.71, illustrated p.72;
Michael Jacobs and Malcolm Warner, The Phaidon Companion to Art and Artists in the British Isles, Phaidon Oxford, 1980;
Michael Williams, Strange Happenings in Cornwall, Bossiney Books, 1981;
Sven Berlin, Alfred Wallis: Primitive, Redcliffe Press, Bristol 1992, pl.33;
Matthew Gale, Alfred Wallis, Tate Publishing, London 1998, pp.22-23, pl.9.

 

There is a small tear to the board in the upper right corner, and artist's holes in the centre of the upper edge and small holes in the upper and lower corners which appear to be inherent to the art work. The paint surface is uneven and in good original condition. There is no sign of retouching under ultra-violet light. Held under glass in a white painted wooden box frame. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 5381 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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This small but powerful painting by Wallis has been included in many exhibitions and publications on the artist, and for good reason. According to Ben Nicholson, it was acquired from Wallis on the occasion of his and Christopher Wood's first encounter with Wallis, and the painter told Nicholson that this was one of the first paintings he had done, and it was the first that he sold. Whilst this gives the painting an added interest as a historical object in the light of the influence Wallis' work was to exercise over the Modernist circles of British artists for many years to come, it also crucially shows us what Wallis' work looked like before any recognition of his work began and before any additional influence came to bear on it.

Recent study of Wallis' paintings and correspondence, and efforts to try to establish a chronology within his oeuvre, suggest that once he became exposed to the artists and enthusiasts in the ambit of Nicholson, there was a shift of emphasis in his work and choice of subject, something that is most notable in the insistence in his letters that he is painting images from his recollection. This seems to coincide with the appearance of the 'event' and 'place' paintings, which are so different from the simple and pure vision of works such as Schooner and Lighthouse.