Alfred Wallis, A touching story of friendship

^{Alfred Wallis, Three Ships and a Lighthouse} 

This unassuming painting by Alfred Wallis has much to say for itself. It is a late work, indicated by Wallis’s capital-letter signature – a style he adopted in the late 1930s. Furthermore, the support is typical of the scrappier, sometimes stained pieces of card and packaging material he could find at that time. His usual supplies were sparse as citizens were being urged to send all types of ‘used cardboard’ to Paper Salvage Depots as part of the National War Effort. 

But it is the exceptional provenance of this painting that strongly supports its late attribution. The painting was acquired by Ben Nicholson, who first met Wallis in 1928 when he and Christopher Wood were visiting St Ives. Wallis’s work greatly appealed to the young Modernist artists who were actively looking for a ‘primitive painter’ to help inform the immediacy, simplicity and directness they were eager to achieve in their own work. As Nicholson later wrote to an art critic, using underlining to highlight his point:

One had to get right back to the beginning & discover what ptg really is & then learn to walk step by step. Wallis was part of that process (we were “looking for him”) Before finding him I had found another ‘primitive’, a house painter near Castagnola.

^{Alfred Wallis}

Nicholson and Wood returned to London and told others of Wallis’s work, which led to Wallis sending parcels of paintings to sell to collectors such as Jim Ede, Cyril Reddihough and Nicholson himself. Nicholson later picked up his acquaintance with Alfred Wallis on his return to St Ives in 1939, when he and his family evacuated London for Carbis Bay at the start of the Second World War.

^{Alfred Wallis and Ben Nicholson}

It is likely to have been on one of Nicholson’s visits to Wallis’s cottage in St Ives between 1939 and 1941 that he acquired this particular painting. The painting is likely to have appealed to Nicholson for its restrained but effective use of colour, something Nicholson wrote of in his article in the arts magazine Horizon after Wallis’s death. It is also a good example of the way Wallis would leave a support unpainted, allowing it to become part of the whole composition.

^{Recto of Three Ships and a Lighthouse}

The painting is executed in pencil, oil, and a blue chalk-like paint. The central subject is a magnificent three-masted ship, anchored to a buoy that resembles the large metal mooring and warping buoys once used at St Ives. Another vessel is moored by the pier and a two-funnelled ship is steaming towards the harbour.

The painting is a fine example of Wallis’s knowledge of the rigging of various types of ship. Here he has depicted the ship with its masts bare, its white sails furled on deck. This was a practice Wallis would have actively taken part in, for example when the ship he crossed the Atlantic in arrived at St John’s, Newfoundland in 1876. After the long crossing, he would have helped stow the sails and check all the rigging so that worn parts could be replaced or adjusted.

What is also striking about the ship in this painting is that it bears one of the clearest examples of Wallis’s depictions of a figurehead. Despite the scale of the figures on board, the substantial figurehead, long bowsprit, three tall masts and extensive standing rigging show that this was clearly a large ocean-going sailing vessel, possibly a three-masted barque. Such vessels, encountered during Wallis’s time at sea, provided lasting memories for his later depictions.

^{Verso of Three Ships and a Lighthouse}

The painting evidently held significance for Nicholson too, and this is where it shines a light on his generous nature: the provenance – and a newly discovered inscription on the reverse in Nicholson’s hand – shows that he gifted it to the young artist David Andrew at Christmas 1958.

Born in Redruth, Andrew initially trained at the Falmouth School of Art and later at the Slade in London in 1958/59. Correspondence previously sold at Lay’s, from Ben Nicholson and his art patron Margaret Gardiner to David Andrew, documents the enormous encouragement Andrew received from Nicholson during the 1950s and 1960s. Nicholson did not simply tell Andrew how to paint or expect him to follow his example. Instead, he encouraged him to look closely, to trust his own instincts and to develop an independent artistic voice. Nicholson would discuss paintings with Andrew and look carefully at his work, offering thoughtful criticism and encouragement. From time to time, Nicholson would drop Andrew a card out of the blue, inviting him to come and see what he had been doing, and would even ask the young artist for his opinion on the work. 

A postcard from Margaret Gardiner to Andrew, addressed to him in London as he was then attending the Slade, is dated November 1958 and invites him to dinner with Nicholson and his son Simon, giving a glimpse of the personal warmth of their friendship. It was only a few weeks later that Nicholson gifted Andrew the Alfred Wallis painting, inscribing the reverse “for DAVID ANDREW Xmas 58”.

The correspondence shows Nicholson continued to take an interest in Andrew as an artist. He sent him information about exhibitions and remained willing to discuss the nature and value of art. This was not simply the attention of a famous painter towards an admirer, but that of someone who was prepared to give his time and support to a much younger artist, and to invite him into his circle. 

In this respect, the gift of the painting offers a fascinating echo of Nicholson’s own relationship with Wallis. Wallis gave a number of his paintings to Nicholson, and although they were separated by a generation, Barbara Hepworth recalled that the two men would discuss Wallis’s paintings, talking together as old friends on an equal footing. 

 Wallis influenced Nicholson, Nicholson helped bring Wallis to wider attention, and Nicholson then passed a Wallis painting to the next generation. In this way, this painting becomes more than a work with remarkable provenance: it is a tangible link between three generations of artists, and a lasting record of encouragement and generosity. 

Words by Matilda Webb, author of Alfred Wallis Child Pauper To Artistic Luminary  

www.alfredwallis.co.uk 

Alfred Wallis,Three Ships and a Lighthouse will be in our upcoming Cornish Art, Fine Art & Studio Pottery.
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