Alfred Wallis
A Cornish fisherman who started painting at 70, creating raw, visionary seascapes that captivated modern artists and redefined British naive art.
1855–1942 (age 87)·English painter·Birthday: August 18
Biography
Alfred Wallis spent most of his life by the sea in St. Ives, Cornwall, working as a fisherman and later a marine scrap dealer. His art began not as a career but as a personal response to loneliness after his wife's death. At age seventy, with no training, he started painting memories of the sailing ships and harbors of his youth on irregular pieces of cardboard, using ship's paint. His work, with its flattened perspective, bold forms, and intuitive composition, was discovered by the visiting avant-garde artists Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood in 1928. They were electrified by his direct, untutored vision, seeing in it a purity lost in academic art. While Wallis himself sold paintings for shillings and died in poverty, his influence was profound, helping to shape the course of modern British art and establishing St. Ives as an artistic colony.
#1 When Alfred Was Born
The biggest hits of 1855
Alfred's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1855Born
1860Started school
1868Became a teenager
President: Andrew Johnson
1871Could drive
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1873Could vote
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1876Turned 21
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1885Turned 30
Karl Benz builds the first gasoline-powered automobile
President: Grover Cleveland
1895Turned 40
First public film screening by the Lumiere brothers
President: Grover Cleveland
1905Turned 50
Einstein publishes the theory of special relativity
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1915Turned 60
The Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat
President: Woodrow Wilson
1925Turned 70
The Scopes Trial debates evolution in schools
Home: $4,366President: Calvin Coolidge"Sweet Georgia Brown" — Ben Bernie
1935Turned 80
Social Security Act signed into law
Gas: $0.19/galHome: $3,450President: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Cheek to Cheek" — Fred AstaireBest Picture: Mutiny on the Bounty
1942Died at 87
Battle of Midway turns the tide in the Pacific
Gas: $0.20/galHome: $3,175Min wage: $0.30/hrPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"White Christmas" — Bing CrosbyBest Picture: Mrs. Miniver
Key Achievements
- Began a significant artistic career at the age of 70, creating a substantial body of work in his final 15 years.
- His naive style was championed and collected by leading modern artists Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood, who brought him to prominence.
- Became a foundational figure for the St. Ives artist colony, influencing British modernism.
- His work is held in major collections, including the Tate and Kettle's Yard in Cambridge.
Did You Know?
He used materials from his trade, painting on scraps of cardboard and wood with ship's enamel paint.
He often wrote descriptions and memories on the back of his paintings.
He was buried in a pauper's grave; his headstone was later funded by artist Ben Nicholson.
“I do not paint for gain but to give myself pleasure from the memories of the past.”
