Alfred Wallis

As the nights draw in and we move closer to the festive season, you may find yourself searching for the perfect book to enjoy by the fire on these dark evenings, or perhaps you’re on the lookout for an ideal Christmas gift for the book lover in your life.

We’re delighted to bring you both a recommendation and an invitation: a talk on Alfred Wallis: Child Pauper to Artistic Luminary, the newly released artist biography by Matilda Webb. Join local speaker Ethan Carney and author Matilda Webb on Thursday, 20th November, at our Penzance saleroom, for an illuminating discussion exploring the newly uncovered facets of Wallis’s remarkable life and work.

Alfred Wallis: Child Pauper to Artistic Luminary front cover

The words of Ethan Carney capture just how exciting this new biography is:

"Alfred Wallis is a name many are familiar with, both in the world of art galleries and in the auction room, with a recent painting fetching £20,000. The continued value of Wallis’s work is testament to his incredible contribution to the British Modern Art scene, particularly in the way his work inspired key St Ives Modernist artists.

There is a degree of mythologizing around Wallis. Since he became widely known as a painter in the 1930s and following his death in 1942, many accounts of his life have focused on the same details, which have become distorted or exaggerated over time.

Alfred Wallis - artist at work

The publication of Matilda Webb’s biography of Wallis is incredibly exciting for those interested in the social history and art of his time, and for Wallis enthusiasts as it delves further than any previous book on the subject. Examining the man behind the myths and drawing on well-sourced archival material, it offers a thoroughly researched and truthful account of his life, dispelling long-held misconceptions and shedding light on lesser-known aspects of his story.

Meticulous research underpins a thorough journey through Wallis’s Cornish ancestry, his impoverished childhood in the slums of Devonport and his family’s return to Penzance. The level of detail - placing his life within the social and geographical context of his time - reveals much more of a human element, and helps us re-evaluate his work and legacy, seeing him less as a myth and more as a real-life person. His life at St Ives and his artistic output there is examined in detail in the book, which is richly illustrated with over a hundred colour reproductions of his paintings.

Penzance, as well as St Ives, has a claim to Alfred Wallis, through his family connection to this end of West Cornwall, and the fact that for many years Penzance was his home. It feels particularly fitting, then, to host this talk in Penzance itself."

Coinciding with the talk is the opening night of our Cornish Art Auction, which, appropriately and to our great excitement, features an original work by Alfred Wallis: Fishing Lugger, pencil and house paint on envelope. The piece measures 18 x 22 cm and comes from the collection of Henry 'Gillie' Gilbert of Wills Lane Gallery, St Ives.

Lot 130, Alfred Wallis: Fishing Lugger

View this Alfred Wallis painting, along with works by many other renowned Cornish artists, this November, accompanied by a glass of something nice, an illustrated talk, and a conversation with the author of this remarkable new book.

For those still searching for the perfect winter read or gift, there will also be an opportunity to purchase your own copy on the night.

If you’d like to find out more about the book, visit: www.alfredwallis.co.uk

We hope to see you there!