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Lot Essay
'i do most what use To Be what we shall never see no more avery [sic] Thing is altered' (Alfred Wallis, Letter to Jim Ede, 9 February 1934, Kettle's Yard Archive: Alfred Wallis 2).
Wallis became an iconic figure for artists of the St Ives' School who admired his simple compositions and individual creativity. Following, his now legendary discovery by Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood in 1928, his works were exhibited in the 1929 exhibition of the 7 & 5 Society and included in Herbert Read's survey Art Now in 1933. His influence is seen in Nicholson's Cornish landscapes and Wood's Breton seascapes. Wood commented 'more and more influence de Wallis, not a bad master though' (C. Wood, Letter to Winifred Nicholson, 31 October 1928, Tate Gallery Archive 8618).
Berlin wrote of Wallis's work: 'He produced paintings of a unique kind: paintings that had new and unsuspected formal and colour relationships, new structure, design, texture and organization, bound together by an unquestionable sincerity and directness' (S. Berlin, 'Alfred Wallis', Horizon, January, 1943).
During Wallis's lifetime he witnessed the decline of the sail-trading ships in favour of steam vessels, shown in the present work. He used thick card from packing boxes and explored the possibilities of this material to the full; in Three Steamers Wallis has incorporated the unpainted areas of the board into his composition to define the beach and uses a characteristically limited palette.
Berlin commented,'It was nearly always his practice to paint the sea grey or white, pointing out that if you took a glass of sea-water and held it to the light it was not green or purple or blue but colourless ...' (ibid).
Wallis became an iconic figure for artists of the St Ives' School who admired his simple compositions and individual creativity. Following, his now legendary discovery by Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood in 1928, his works were exhibited in the 1929 exhibition of the 7 & 5 Society and included in Herbert Read's survey Art Now in 1933. His influence is seen in Nicholson's Cornish landscapes and Wood's Breton seascapes. Wood commented 'more and more influence de Wallis, not a bad master though' (C. Wood, Letter to Winifred Nicholson, 31 October 1928, Tate Gallery Archive 8618).
Berlin wrote of Wallis's work: 'He produced paintings of a unique kind: paintings that had new and unsuspected formal and colour relationships, new structure, design, texture and organization, bound together by an unquestionable sincerity and directness' (S. Berlin, 'Alfred Wallis', Horizon, January, 1943).
During Wallis's lifetime he witnessed the decline of the sail-trading ships in favour of steam vessels, shown in the present work. He used thick card from packing boxes and explored the possibilities of this material to the full; in Three Steamers Wallis has incorporated the unpainted areas of the board into his composition to define the beach and uses a characteristically limited palette.
Berlin commented,'It was nearly always his practice to paint the sea grey or white, pointing out that if you took a glass of sea-water and held it to the light it was not green or purple or blue but colourless ...' (ibid).