Alfred Wallis Sold at Auction Prices

Painter, b. 1855 - d. 1942

Artist Alfred Wallis was a self-trained British painter born in 1855. Alfred Wallis' paintings focused on maritime subjects and the town of St. Ives, Cornwall. Before turning to art to help him mourn the loss of his wife in the 1920s, Wallis worked buying and selling rope, sails, iron, and other scraps to mariners who owned and worked on sailboats.

Alfred Wallis is an artist considered to be among the most influential naive painters of his era. His work may have remained in obscurity were it not discovered by renowned artists Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood, who became instant admirers of Wallis' work when they came across it.

Alfred Wallis, an artist who did not truly achieve fame till after his death, has become a celebrated modernist painter. Find original vintage oil paintings depicting landscapes, cityscapes, fantasy, or everyday subjects.

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sold
Nov. 22, 2022
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) The Wreck of the Alba 17.4 x 40 cm. (6 7/8 x 15 3/4 in.)
Est: £20,000 - £30,000
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) The Wreck of the Alba signed 'A WALLIS' (verso) pencil and oil on cardboard 17.4 x 40 cm. (6 7/8 x 15 3/4 in.)
Bonhams
sold
Jun. 30, 2022
Four Sailing Boats and Pier Head
Est: £10,000 - £15,000
Property from a Private European Collection Alfred Wallis 1855 - 1942 Four Sailing Boats and Pier Head household paint and pencil on card unframed: 17.5 by 30cm.; 7 by 11¾in. framed: 34.5 by 47cm.; 13½ by 18½in. We are grateful to Robert Jones for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work. Bid on Sotheby's
Sotheby's
sold
Jun. 30, 2022
Three Masted Ships and Arched Railway Bridge
Est: £12,000 - £18,000
Property from a Private European Collection Alfred Wallis 1855 - 1942 Three Masted Ships and Arched Railway Bridge pencil, household paint and oil on paper unframed: 23 by 30cm.; 9 by 11¾in. framed: 40 by 46.5cm.; 15¾ by 18¼in. We are grateful to Robert Jones for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work. Bid on Sotheby's
Sotheby's
sold
Jun. 22, 2022
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Steamer, Lifeboat and Lighthouse 36 x 53.5 cm. (14 x 21 in.)
Est: £40,000 - £60,000
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Steamer, Lifeboat and Lighthouse indistinctly signed 'alfred/wallis' (lower left), further signed 'alfred wallis' (centre right) pencil, charcoal and oil on board 36 x 53.5 cm. (14 x 21 in.) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Bonhams
sold
Jun. 22, 2022
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) The Flying Scud 23.5 x 29.8 cm. (9 1/4 x 11 3/4 in.)
Est: £12,000 - £18,000
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) The Flying Scud signed 'A. WALLIS' (upper right); and inscribed 'To Daphne/with wishes for the future/Affectionately/Sven/xmas. 1949.' (in Sven Berlin's hand, verso) oil on card 23.5 x 29.8 cm. (9 1/4 x 11 3/4 in.) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Bonhams
sold
Jun. 22, 2022
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Three Trees 15 x 34.9 cm. (5 7/8 x 13 3/4 in.)
Est: £15,000 - £20,000
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Three Trees signed 'A WALLIS' (upper left); further signed and titled 'Alfred Wallis/3 Trees' (verso), and inscribed and dated 'for Bryan/St Ives 54/belongs to Nicholson/Chy an Kerris/Carbis Bay/Cornwall' (in Ben Nicholson's hand, verso) oil on card laid on thick card 15 x 34.9 cm. (5 7/8 x 13 3/4 in.) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Bonhams
sold
Jun. 22, 2022
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Mount's Bay with St Michael's Mount 23.5 x 33 cm. (9 1/4 x 13 in.)
Est: £30,000 - £50,000
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Mount's Bay with St Michael's Mount signed 'A WALLIS' (lower right) oil on panel 23.5 x 33 cm. (9 1/4 x 13 in.) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Bonhams
sold
Jun. 22, 2022
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Fishing Boat with Black Sky 18.4 x 46.7 cm. (7 1/4 x 18 3/8 in.)
Est: £40,000 - £60,000
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Fishing Boat with Black Sky signed 'A. WALLIS' (upper right) oil and pencil on card 18.4 x 46.7 cm. (7 1/4 x 18 3/8 in.) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Bonhams
sold
Jun. 22, 2022
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Pier with Boats and Fish 23.8 x 30.5 cm. (9 3/8 x 12 in.)
Est: £25,000 - £35,000
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Pier with Boats and Fish signed 'A.WALLIS' (upper right) oil and pencil on card 23.8 x 30.5 cm. (9 3/8 x 12 in.) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Bonhams
sold
Jun. 22, 2022
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Boats with Rust Sails 11.2 x 22.4 cm. (4 3/8 x 8 3/4 in.)
Est: £18,000 - £25,000
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Boats with Rust Sails oil and pencil on card 11.2 x 22.4 cm. (4 3/8 x 8 3/4 in.) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Bonhams
sold
Nov. 30, 2021
§ ALFRED WALLIS (1855-1942)
Est: £1,500 - £2,500
§ ALFRED WALLIS (1855-1942) PROPERTY OF A LADY, LONDON ALFRED WALLIS (1855-1942) Fishing boats pencil 25.6 x 22.3 cm (10 x 9 in) PROVENANCE: Dr Dallas Doxford and by descent We are grateful to Robert Jones for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.
Chiswick Auctions
sold
Oct. 28, 2021
§ ALFRED WALLIS (BRITISH 1855-1942) PLYMOUTH
Est: £20,000 - £30,000
§ ALFRED WALLIS (BRITISH 1855-1942) PLYMOUTH signed in pencil (upper left), oil and chalk on card (26.5cm x 35.5cm (10.5in x 14in)) Provenance: In Barns-Graham's notes about her collection she states she was given three oils by Alfred Wallis by Mary Buchanan, Ben Nicholson and Sven Berlin. In the exhibition catalogue for Alfred Wallis (Arts Council of Great Britain, 1968) it states this painting is ex collection ‘Mrs George Buchanan’. Literature: Published with title 'Portsmouth and the Victory' Nicholson, Ben (1950), (Bournemouth Arts Club Presents a Retrospective Exhibition of) Paintings by Alfred Wallis, Sydenham & Co. Ltd, Bournemouth, cat. no. 17. The Arts Council of Great Britain, Alfred Wallis, Percy Lund, Humpries & Co Ltd, London and Bradford, 1968 cat. no. 39. Footnote: The three paintings in this collection by Alfred Wallis were gifted to Barns-Graham by individual friends: Mary Buchanan, Sven Berlin, and Ben Nicholson. Wallis died in 1942 two years after Willie settled in St Ives. There was time however for her to become acquainted with him, and to act as a sort of ambassador for those who wished to meet the self-taught painter (he could be crotchety). She admired, as did Ben Nicholson and other painters before her, the simplicity and directness of his imagemaking. There was a freedom, a lack of formality, that the Moderns strived for. To Wallis, painting was a physical event: perspective and relative scale was irrelevant as he storyboarded his memories. It is difficult today, when his work commands so much attention, to imagine the ease with which one could acquire his work, and also give it away. Mary Buchanan and her husband, the novelist George Buchanan were among those friends the newly arrived Barns-Graham made through the auspices of her Edinburgh College of Art fellow painter Margaret Mellis, and her new husband the art critic and painter, Adrian Stokes. The latter was the catalyst for the move to Cornwall of Barbara Hepworth, her husband Ben Nicholson and the Russian sculptor Naum Gabo with his wife, Miriam. The Stokes’ Carbis Bay home, Little Parc Owles, was a magnet for all new arrivals, and those visiting from London and elsewhere. Despite the house being full of senior Modernist figures, Barns-Graham never forgot her first encounter with the group of Wallis paintings Stokes owned. Always a note-taker, she recorded the oddly shaped bits of cardboard he painted on, and his particular colours: black boats, green and white seas, and grey houses. Some very early St Ives paintings of sheds by Willie owe something to Wallis, the flattening of perspective and his palette. Essay by Lynne Green, author of W. Barns-Graham: a studio life, and Trustee of the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust.
Lyon & Turnbull
sold
Oct. 28, 2021
§ ◆ ALFRED WALLIS (BRITISH 1855-1942) HOUSES IN ST. IVES
Est: £30,000 - £50,000
§ ◆ ALFRED WALLIS (BRITISH 1855-1942) HOUSES IN ST. IVES oil, pencil and chalk on cardboard (18.5cm x 26.5cm (7.25in x 10.5in)) Provenance: In Barns-Graham's notes about her collection she states she was given three oils by Alfred Wallis by Mary Buchanan, Ben Nicholson and Sven Berlin. In the exhibition catalogue for Alfred Wallis (The Arts Council of Great Britain 1968) it states this painting is ex-collection Ben Nicholson. Exhibited: 1950: Possibly shown with title 'Houses', Bournemouth, Bournemouth Arts Club, Alfred Wallis and Christopher Wood, 12 Aug to 2 Sep 1950, no. 32; 1959: St Ives, 36 Fore Street (Penwith Gallery?), Alfred Wallis Exhibition, 1-6 June 1959, cat. no. 24; 1968: London, The Arts Council of Great Britain, Alfred Wallis, Tate Gallery 30 May to 30 June 1968, York City Art Gallery 6 to 28 July; 1968: Aberdeen Art Gallery 3 to 25 August, Abbot Hall Art Gallery 31 Aug to 22 Sep 1968, cat. no. 2, plate XII; 1983: St Ives, Penwith Gallery, Alfred Wallis, 3 September to 1 October 1983, cat. no. 5; 1985: London, Tate, St Ives 1939-64: Twenty Five Years of Painting, Sculpture and Pottery, Tate 13 Feb to 14 Apr 1985, cat. no. 25; 1999-2000: Dublin, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Two Painters: Works by Alfred Wallis and James Dixon, Irish Museum of Modern Art, 1 Sep to 21 Nov 1999, Tate St Ives, May to Nov 2000, cat. no. 3. 2020: Bristol, Royal West of England Academy, St Ives: Movements in Art and Life, 14 March to 19 September 2020. Footnote: Literature: Possibly published with title 'Houses,' Nicholson, Ben (1950), (Bournemouth Arts Club Presents a Retrospective Exhibition of) Paintings by Alfred Wallis, Sydenham & Co. Ltd, Bournemouth, cat.no. 32; The Arts Council of Great Britain (1968), Alfred Wallis, Percy Lund, Humpries & Co Ltd, London and Bradford, cat. no. 2, plate XII; Tate Gallery (1985), St Ives 1939-64: Twenty Five Years of Painting, Sculpture and Pottery, Tate Gallery Productions, London, cat. no. 25; Irish Museum of Modern Art (2000), Two Painters: Works by Alfred Wallis and James Dixon, Merrell Holberton Publishers Ltd, London, cat. no. 3. The three paintings in this collection by Alfred Wallis were gifted to Barns-Graham by individual friends: Mary Buchanan, Sven Berlin, and Ben Nicholson. Wallis died in 1942 two years after Willie settled in St Ives. There was time however for her to become acquainted with him, and to act as a sort of ambassador for those who wished to meet the self-taught painter (he could be crotchety). She admired, as did Ben Nicholson and other painters before her, the simplicity and directness of his imagemaking. There was a freedom, a lack of formality, that the Moderns strived for. To Wallis, painting was a physical event: perspective and relative scale was irrelevant as he storyboarded his memories. It is difficult today, when his work commands so much attention, to imagine the ease with which one could acquire his work, and also give it away. Mary Buchanan and her husband, the novelist George Buchanan were among those friends the newly arrived Barns-Graham made through the auspices of her Edinburgh College of Art fellow painter Margaret Mellis, and her new husband the art critic and painter, Adrian Stokes. The latter was the catalyst for the move to Cornwall of Barbara Hepworth, her husband Ben Nicholson and the Russian sculptor Naum Gabo with his wife, Miriam. The Stokes’ Carbis Bay home, Little Parc Owles, was a magnet for all new arrivals, and those visiting from London and elsewhere. Despite the house being full of senior Modernist figures, Barns-Graham never forgot her first encounter with the group of Wallis paintings Stokes owned. Always a note-taker, she recorded the oddly shaped bits of cardboard he painted on, and his particular colours: black boats, green and white seas, and grey houses. Some very early St Ives paintings of sheds by Willie owe something to Wallis, the flattening of perspective and his palette. Essay by Lynne Green, author of W. Barns-Graham: a studio life, and Trustee of the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust.
Lyon & Turnbull
sold
Oct. 28, 2021
ALFRED WALLIS (BRITISH 1855-1942) ST. IVES BAY
Est: £15,000 - £25,000
ALFRED WALLIS (BRITISH 1855-1942) ST. IVES BAY pencil and oil on board (7.5cm x 30.1cm (3in x 11.9in)) Provenance: In Barns-Graham's notes about her collection she states she was given three oils by Alfred Wallis by Mary Buchanan, Ben Nicholson and Sven Berlin. This Wallis was given to Wilhelmina Barns-Graham by Sven Berlin for research she did on the Wallis family, presumably for his book on Wallis. Exhibited: 1950: Bournemouth, Bournemouth Arts Club, Alfred Wallis and Christopher Wood, 12 Aug to 2 Sep 1950, no. 56; 1959: St Ives, 36 Fore Street (Penwith Gallery?), Alfred Wallis Exhibition, 1-6 June 1959, cat. no. 26; 1968: London, The Arts Council of Great Britain, Alfred Wallis, Tate Gallery 30 May to 30 June 1968, York City Art Gallery 6 to 28 July; 1968, Aberdeen Art Gallery 3 to 25 August, Abbot Hall Art Gallery 31 Aug to 22 Sep 1968, cat. no. 16; 1983: St Ives, Penwith Gallery, Alfred Wallis, 3 September to 1 October 1983, cat. no. 6. Footnote: Published References: Nicholson, Ben (1950), (Bournemouth Arts Club Presents a Retrospective Exhibition of) Paintings by Alfred Wallis, Sydenham & Co. Ltd, Bournemouth, cat no. 56 The Arts Council of Great Britain (1968), Alfred Wallis, Percy Lund, Humpries & Co Ltd, London and Bradford, cat no 16. The three paintings in this collection by Alfred Wallis were gifted to Barns-Graham by individual friends: Mary Buchanan, Sven Berlin, and Ben Nicholson. Wallis died in 1942 two years after Willie settled in St Ives. There was time however for her to become acquainted with him, and to act as a sort of ambassador for those who wished to meet the self-taught painter (he could be crotchety). She admired, as did Ben Nicholson and other painters before her, the simplicity and directness of his imagemaking. There was a freedom, a lack of formality, that the Moderns strived for. To Wallis, painting was a physical event: perspective and relative scale was irrelevant as he storyboarded his memories. It is difficult today, when his work commands so much attention, to imagine the ease with which one could acquire his work, and also give it away. Mary Buchanan and her husband, the novelist George Buchanan were among those friends the newly arrived Barns-Graham made through the auspices of her Edinburgh College of Art fellow painter Margaret Mellis, and her new husband the art critic and painter, Adrian Stokes. The latter was the catalyst for the move to Cornwall of Barbara Hepworth, her husband Ben Nicholson and the Russian sculptor Naum Gabo with his wife, Miriam. The Stokes’ Carbis Bay home, Little Parc Owles, was a magnet for all new arrivals, and those visiting from London and elsewhere. Despite the house being full of senior Modernist figures, Barns-Graham never forgot her first encounter with the group of Wallis paintings Stokes owned. Always a note-taker, she recorded the oddly shaped bits of cardboard he painted on, and his particular colours: black boats, green and white seas, and grey houses. Some very early St Ives paintings of sheds by Willie owe something to Wallis, the flattening of perspective and his palette. Essay by Lynne Green, author of W. Barns-Graham: a studio life, and Trustee of the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust.
Lyon & Turnbull
sold
Oct. 21, 2021
ALFRED WALLIS (1855-1942) - Harbour scene with castle and lighthouse
Est: £15,000 - £25,000
ALFRED WALLIS (1855-1942) Harbour scene with castle and lighthouse pencil, gouache and oil on card 5 1/8 x 8 5/8 in. (13 x 21.9 cm.)
Christie's
sold
Sep. 24, 2021
Alfred Wallis, 1855 Devenport – 1942 St Ives Bay
Est: €20,000 - €30,000
FISCHKUTTER Schiffsfarben auf bräunlichem Karton. Ca. 26 x 41 cm. Rechts oben signiert „A WALLIS“. Hinter Glas gerahmt.Provenienz: Süddeutsche Kunstsammlung. Galerie Valentien, Stuttgart. Literatur: Vgl. Edwin Mullis, Alfred Wallis. Cornish Primitive Painter, London 1967. (12805729) (18)Alfred Wallis,1855 Devenport – 1942 St Ives BayFISHING BOAT Marine coatings on brownish card. Ca. 26 x 41 cm.Signed “A WALLIS” top right.Provenance:Art collection, Southern Germany.Galerie Valentien, Stuttgart.Literature:Compare E. Mullis, Alfred Wallis. Cornish Primitive Painter, London, 1967.
Hampel Fine Art Auctions
sold
Sep. 24, 2021
Alfred Wallis, 1855 Devenport – 1942 St Ives Bay
Est: €25,000 - €35,000
SEGELDAMPFER IN AUFGEWÜHLTER SEE Öl auf Karton. 19 x 27,5 cm. Oben rechts in Versalien signiert. Hinter Glas gerahmt.Nach dem Tod seiner Frau begann Wallis, der schon von Kindesbeinen an am Meer wohnte und die Schiffe täglich sah, als Autodidakt zu malen. Er behielt seinen naiven Malstil auch bei, als er 1928 in die Künstlerkolonie St. Ives aufgenommen wurde. Seine Gemälde schuf er mit Farben, die eigentlich für Bootsrümpfe im Ort gehandelt wurden.Literatur: Vgl. Edwin Mullins, Alfred Wallis. Cornish Primitive Painter, London 1967.Susanne Grimm, Authentische Naive. Das Erlebnis des Unmittelbaren, Stuttgart 1991, S. 86. (12803920) (13)Alfred Wallis,1855 Devenport – 1942 St Ives BaySAILING STEAMER IN A TURBULENT SEAOil on card.19 x 27.5 cm.Signed in capital letters top right. Literature:Compare E. Mullins, Alfred Wallis. Cornish Primitive Painter, London, 1967.Susanne Grimm, Authentische Naive. Das Erlebnis des Unmittelbaren, Stuttgart 1991, p. 86.
Hampel Fine Art Auctions
sold
Sep. 24, 2021
Alfred Wallis, 1855 Devenport – 1942 St Ives Bay
Est: €18,000 - €25,000
STEAMER Öl auf Buchkarton. 17 x 38 cm. Verso mit Sammlungs- und Ausstellungsetiketten. Hinter Glas gerahmt.Provenienz: Galerie Charlotte – Galerie für naive Kunst und Art Brut, München. Seit 1990 in süddeutscher Kunstsammlung. Literatur:Susanne Grimm, Authentische Naive. Das Erlebnis des Unmittelbaren, Stuttgart 1991, S. 87. (12803921) (13)Alfred Wallis,1855 Devenport – 1942 St Ives BaySTEAMER Oil on book card. 17 x 38 cm.Collection and exhibition label on the reverse. Provenance:Galerie Charlotte – Galerie für naive Kunst und Art Brut, Munich.Art collection, Southern Germany (since 1990).Literature:Susanne Grimm, Authentische Naive. Das Erlebnis des Unmittelbaren, Stuttgart 1991, p. 87.
Hampel Fine Art Auctions
sold
Sep. 24, 2021
Alfred Wallis, 1855 Devenport – 1942 St Ives Bay, zugeschrieben
Est: €5,000 - €7,000
SCHIFFE UND LEUCHTTURM Schiffsfarben auf bräunlichem Karton. 9 x 28,5 cm. Freigestellt unter Glas mit Holzrahmen.Provenienz: Aus süddeutscher Kunstsammlung. Literatur: Vgl. Edwin Mullins: Cornish Primitive Painter, London 1967, S.53, Abb.21 und S.55, Abb.23. (12805727) (18)
Hampel Fine Art Auctions
sold
Jun. 30, 2021
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Sail Boat 14.8 x 21 cm. (5 7/8 x 8 1/4 in.)
Est: £15,000 - £20,000
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Sail Boat oil and pencil on board 14.8 x 21 cm. (5 7/8 x 8 1/4 in.) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Bonhams
sold
Mar. 02, 2021
ALFRED WALLIS (1855-1942) Sailing Ship in a Stormy SeaALFRED WALLIS (1855
Est: £12,000 - £18,000
ALFRED WALLIS (1855-1942) Sailing Ship in a Stormy SeaALFRED WALLIS (1855-1942), Sailing Ship in a Stormy Sea, signed 'Alfred Wallis' (lower right), with inscription 'for Loulie from Jim for 11.11.55' (on the backboard), oil and pencil on card, 10 x 12..."
Christie's
sold
Dec. 11, 2020
Alfred Wallis "The White House" Painting on Board
Est: $15,000 - $25,000
Alfred Wallis (1855-1942). Pencil and gouache on cardboard drawing titled "The White House." Gallery and museum label attached on the verso. Unsigned. Provenance: Crane Kalman Gallery, London UK Private Collection, Cambridge, MA Exhibition: Dublin, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Two Painters: Alfred Wallis & James Dixon, 1999-2000, with tour to Tate St Ives. Exhibition number WD68. Alfred Wallis (18 August 1855 - 29 August 1942) was a Cornish fisherman and artist. Wallis's parents, Charles and Jane Wallis were from Penzance in Cornwall and moved to Devonport, Devon to find work in 1850 where Alfred and his brother Charles were born. Shortly after this the children's mother died and this prompted the family to move back to Penzance. On leaving school Alfred became an apprentice basket maker before becoming a mariner in the merchant service by the early 1870s. This work involved sailing schooners across the North Atlantic between Penzance and Newfoundland. Alfred married Susan Ward at St. Mary's church in Penzance in 1876, when he was 20 and his wife was 41 and became stepfather to her five children. He continued his life as a deep-sea fisherman on the Newfoundland run in the early days of his marriage allowing him to earn a good wage until the death of his two infant children when Alfred switched to local fishing and laboring in Penzance. The family moved to St. Ives, Cornwall, in 1890 where he established himself as a marine stores dealer, buying scrap iron, sails, rope and other items. In 1912, his business, "Wallis, Alfred, Marine Stores Dealer" closed for business and Alfred kept himself busy with odd jobs and worked for a local antiques dealer Mr Armour which provided some insight into the world of objets d'art. Following his wife's death in 1922, Wallis took up painting, as he later told Jim Ede, "for company". His paintings are an excellent example of naÃ¯ve art; perspective is ignored and an object's scale is often based on its relative importance in the scene. This gives many of his paintings a map-like quality. Wallis painted his seascapes from memory, in large part because the world of sail he knew was being replaced by steamships. As he himself put it, his subjects were "what use To Bee out of my memery what we may never see again... "Having little money, Wallis improvised with materials, mostly painting on cardboard ripped from packing boxes using a limited palette of paint bought from ships' chandlers. In many ways, Wallis' timing was excellent. In 1928, a few years after he had started painting, Ben Nicholson and Kit Wood came to St. Ives and established an artist colony. They were delighted to find Wallis and celebrated his direct approach to image-making.(Nicholson commented later 'to Wallis,his paintings were never paintings but actual events') Wallis was propelled into a circle of the some of most progressive artists working in Britain in the 1930s. The influence, however, was all one way; Wallis continued to paint as he always had.) Nicholson later said of Wallis's art 'something that has grown out of the Cornish seas and earth and which will endure') Through Nicholson and Wood, Wallis was introduced to Jim Ede who promoted his work in London. Despite this attention, Wallis sold few of his paintings and continued to live in poverty until he died in the Madron Workhouse in Penzance. He is buried in Barnoon cemetery, overlooking St. Ives' Porthmeor beach and the Tate St Ives gallery. An elaborate gravestone, depicting a tiny mariner at the foot of a huge lighthouse - a popular motif in Wallis' paintings - was made from tiles by the potter Bernard Leach and now covers Wallis' tomb. Source Wikipedia Sight; height: 9 1/4 in x width: 12 1/4 in. Framed; height: 15 3/4 in x width: 19 in.
Revere Auctions
sold
Nov. 18, 2020
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Fishing boats 24.3 x 30 cm. (9 1/2 x 11 7/8 in.)
Est: £12,000 - £18,000
Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942) Fishing boats signed 'Alfred Wallis' (upper right) pencil and oil on card 24.3 x 30 cm. (9 1/2 x 11 7/8 in.) For further information on this lot please visit the Bonhams website
Bonhams
sold
Nov. 04, 2020
Alfred Wallis, British 1855-1942 - Sailing in Stormy Seas;
Est: £3,000 - £5,000
Alfred Wallis, British 1855-1942- Sailing in Stormy Seas; pencil and oil on card, 8x13.5cm (image) (ARR) Provenance: Sotheby's Olympia 24 November 2004 lot 251, where it was purchased by the present owner. With thanks to Robert Jones for his assistance in cataloguing this lot. Note: In spring 1876 a Westcountry schooner was moored alongside the quay in Penzance Harbour. The ship had sailed from Cardiff with a cargo of coal and was being refitted and taking on crew for the next voyage. On 25th April an ordinary seaman joined the crew of the sailing ship, signing the crew agreement. The ship was Pride of the West and the seaman was Alfred Wallis aged 19. Three weeks previously Alfred Wallis had married Susan Ward, a widow and mother of a large family, in St Mary’s Church Penzance. She was expecting Wallis’s child. On 26th April Pride of the West sailed for Cadiz to load cargo before crossing the Atlantic to St John’s, Newfoundland to collect a cargo of dry salt cod. In St John’s Wallis left the ship and found a birth aboard another ship, Belle Aventure of Brixham. of Wallis, the artist Sven Berlin recounts that the ship encountered a severe storm and had to jettison some of the cargo to stabilise the ship. August is the beginning of the hurricane season on the Eastern Seaboard of the USA and Canada and such storms generate huge swells that can last for weeks. This little painting is surely expressing Alfred Wallis’s memory of sea conditions in heavy weather. The ship carries reduced sail, enough to keep to wind to ride out the storm. A solitary figure stands at the stern, taking his turn at the ship’s wheel, as Wallis would have done. He also remembers the ratlines (rope ladders) that his duties required him to climb to make sail adjustments at all times of day and in all weathers. Here, in this painting Wallis remembers an experience that would have been awe-inspiring for any seaman; depicting a ship rising on a great swell may also reflect Wallis’s struggle against adversity. The ship took three months on the return voyage across the Atlantic and on 9th November Wallis was discharged in Teignmouth and was paid £6/12/4d for the voyage. On his return to Penzance he would have learned that in his absence the child Susan was carrying, a boy, had been born, died and been buried in Madron Churchyard. Wallis started painting at the age of 70, painting on discarded materials, particularly cardboard, with house paint and pots of enamel that he bought from the local store. This painting is a wonderful example; the verso reveals a period advertisement for Pure Quick Quaker Oats. Through his paintings Wallis has told us of his life experience; of the ships he knew and the places he visited. Through his influence on a group of artists who were to become central figures in the British Modernist movement, Walis’s work has earned a place the history of British art. Robert Jones Please refer to department for condition report
Roseberys