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Lot Essay
A seaman and fisherman for most of his life, Wallis only took up painting at the age of 70. After retiring from marine life in 1876, he settled in St Ives, where he pursued what has been described as a compulsion to paint. Using any materials that came to hand, he brought new life to old calendars, cardboard, or train time tables: ‘nothing was safe from where paint could go.' Ben Nicholson admired how Wallis’ bold creativity allowed his work to move beyond the traditional boundaries of paint and canvas to become, in his words, ‘real experiences.’ The thick layers of blue, green and white over black in Mount's Bay create the impression of an intense atmospheric energy, the characteristically distorted treatment of space speaking to what the art historian Robert Jones has noted as the artist’s 'intuitive awareness of the problem of representing three dimensions on a flat surface' (R. Jones, Alfred Wallis Artist and Mariner, Tiverton, 2001, p. 124). Additionally, the composition of the piece suggests a cartographic vision, foregrounding the artist’s memory of these waters to further enforce the experiential narrative Nicholson so deeply valued.
Once belonging to H.S. (Jim) Ede, founder of Kettle’s Yard and visionary collector of Wallis and Modern British Art, the present work speaks to the boundless ‘primitive’ spirit that Ede, as with his notable contemporaries, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood, found in the artist. Nicholson and Wood encountered Wallis by chance in August 1928 and, soon after, introduced him to Ede, from which point the two developed a strong friendship. Kettle's Yard was full of Wallis’ works, which made up an entire corridor of the house and filled the wall above the Edes’ bed. Wallis provided Helen and Jim with over 100 paintings and drawings, mailing as many as 60 at a time for the couple to choose from.
During Ede's lecture tours of the USA in the 1940s, he met Perry Rathbone, to whom he later gifted Mount's Bay. An early advocate of German Expressionism, Rathbone went on to direct both the Saint Louis Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the two men continued to correspond regularly for over 40 years. Ede sold Brâncuși’s Poisson d’Or (1924) and Gaudier-Brzeska’s Wrestlers (1913) to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1957 and 1965 respectively, when Rathbone was Director. In addition, Rathbone oversaw the acquisition of works by other prominent 20th-century artists including Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee and Alberto Giacometti. In 1973, Rathbone joined Christie’s as the head of the New York offices, and remained there until his retirement in 1987. His legacy is upheld by his children, all of whom are respected art historians.
Once belonging to H.S. (Jim) Ede, founder of Kettle’s Yard and visionary collector of Wallis and Modern British Art, the present work speaks to the boundless ‘primitive’ spirit that Ede, as with his notable contemporaries, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood, found in the artist. Nicholson and Wood encountered Wallis by chance in August 1928 and, soon after, introduced him to Ede, from which point the two developed a strong friendship. Kettle's Yard was full of Wallis’ works, which made up an entire corridor of the house and filled the wall above the Edes’ bed. Wallis provided Helen and Jim with over 100 paintings and drawings, mailing as many as 60 at a time for the couple to choose from.
During Ede's lecture tours of the USA in the 1940s, he met Perry Rathbone, to whom he later gifted Mount's Bay. An early advocate of German Expressionism, Rathbone went on to direct both the Saint Louis Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the two men continued to correspond regularly for over 40 years. Ede sold Brâncuși’s Poisson d’Or (1924) and Gaudier-Brzeska’s Wrestlers (1913) to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1957 and 1965 respectively, when Rathbone was Director. In addition, Rathbone oversaw the acquisition of works by other prominent 20th-century artists including Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee and Alberto Giacometti. In 1973, Rathbone joined Christie’s as the head of the New York offices, and remained there until his retirement in 1987. His legacy is upheld by his children, all of whom are respected art historians.