St Ives Harbour

This painting is part of a series of views of St Ives Bay by Alfred Wallis, in which he repeatedly returned to the same coastal landmarks. On the right stands Godrevy Lighthouse, built to warn ships of the dangerous reef known as the Stones. To the left, Wallis depicts the harbour at St Ives with Smeaton’s Pier and its lighthouse. The boats and large curved forms in the foreground represent seine-net fishing equipment and vessels drawn up on the shore. In the lower right is the entrance to the Hayle Estuary, leading to the port of Hayle, where ships and fishing boats sought shelter, though the sand bar at its mouth made navigation hazardous. A former mariner, Wallis painted such scenes from memory, capturing the working landscape of the Cornish coast that had shaped his life.

Gifted by H.S. (Jim) Ede, founder of Kettle’s Yard and pioneering collector of Wallis and Modern British Art, to Sir Leslie Martin, highly influential post-war architect who designed the Kettle’s Yard extension in 1970, the present work has a particularly meaningful provenance.