The Hold House Port Mear Square Island Port Mear Beach, circa 1932, Tate Gallery.

Alfred Wallis (18 August 1855 – 29 August 1942) was an Cornish fisherman and artist. Image File history File links Wallis,_Hold_House_Port_Mear_Square_Island. ... Image File history File links Wallis,_Hold_House_Port_Mear_Square_Island. ... The Tate Gallery in the United Kingdom is a network of four galleries: Tate Britain (opened 1897), Tate Liverpool (1988), Tate St Ives (1993), Tate Modern (2000), with a complementary website Tate Online (1998). ... August 18 is the 230th day of the year (231st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1855 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... August 29 is the 241st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (242nd in leap years), with 124 days remaining. ... 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... Joe Cornish, British TV presenter. ... A fisherman in central Chile A Long Island fisherman cleans his nets A fisherman (in recent years sometimes called a fisher to be non-gender specific), is a person who engages in the activity of fishing. ... For building painting, see painter and decorator. ...

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.^[1] Penzance Harbour and surrounding area as seen from the air Penzance (Cornish: Pensans) is a civil parish and port town in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, UK. Granted various Royal Charters from 1512 onwards and incorporated in 1614,[2] it has a population of 21,168[1] people and... Cornwall (Cornish: ) is a county in South West England, United Kingdom, on the peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar and Devon. ... Devonport, in Devon, was formerly called Plymouth Dock. ... Two-masted fishing schooner A schooner is a type of sailing ship characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts. ... For other uses, see Atlantic (disambiguation) The Atlantic Ocean is Earths second-largest ocean, covering approximately one-fifth of its surface. ... For other uses, see Newfoundland (disambiguation). ...

Alfred married Susan Ward at St. Mary's church in Penzance in 1876, when he was 20 and his wife was 41 and became step-father 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 labouring 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. St Ives harbour St Ives is a seaside town in Cornwall, England, north of Penzance, and west of Camborne. ... In the English language the term Art object may also be encountered in its French form Objet DArt. ...

Following his wife's death in 1922, Wallis took up painting, to, as he later told Jim Ede, "keep himself company". Harold Stanley Ede (7 April 1895 - 15 March 1990) also known as Jim Ede, was a British collector of art and friend to artists. ...

His paintings are an excellent example of naïve 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. Having no money, Wallis improvised with materials, mostly painting on cardboard ripped from packing boxes. Example of Henri Rousseaus work: The Repast of the Lion, circa 1907 Naïve art is created by untrained artists. ... A cube in two-point perspective. ... Spatial scale provides a shorthand form for discussing relative lengths, areas, distances and sizes. ... Seascape may refer to: A photograph, painting, or other work of art which depicts the sea. ... For the songs, see Sailing (song). ... Paddle steamers - Lucerne-Switzerland Left: original paddlewheel from a paddle steamer on the lake of Lucerne. ...

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. 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. Ben Nicholson (April 10, 1894 - February 6, 1982), British abstract painter, was born in Denham, Buckinghamshire. ... John Christopher Wood (7 April 1901 – 21 August 1930), often called Kit Wood, was an English painter born in Knowsley, near Liverpool. ... St Ives harbour St Ives is a seaside town in Cornwall, England, north of Penzance, and west of Camborne. ... 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link is to a full 1930 calendar). ...

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. Former workhouse at Nantwich, dating from 1780 A workhouse was a place where people who were unable to support themselves could go to live and work. ... Penzance Harbour and surrounding area as seen from the air Penzance (Cornish: Pensans) is a civil parish and port town in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, UK. Granted various Royal Charters from 1512 onwards and incorporated in 1614,[2] it has a population of 21,168[1] people and... Porthmeor Beach, St Ives with the entrance to the Tate gallery on the right. ... In art, a motif is a repeated idea, pattern, image, or theme. ... Unfired green ware pottery on a traditional drying rack at Conner Prairie living history museum. ... Bernard Howell Leach CH (January 5, 1887 – May 6, 1979), a British studio potter. ...

Examples of Wallis' paintings can be seen at Kettle's Yard (Jim Ede's home) and at the Tate St Ives. The three cottages which comprise the main house of Kettles Yard. ... Porthmeor Beach, St Ives with the entrance to the Tate gallery on the right. ...

External links

• Images from the Tate gallery collection.
• The Life & Work of Alfred Wallis - St Ives Artist & Mariner
• Alfred Wallis Cottage - The Home of the Artist
• Alfred Wallis' Marine Stores - Shop/Home of the Artist

References

1. ^ Heroes of Cornwall - Sheila Bird - 2004