Alfred Wallis

Alfred Wallis was born in Devonport, Plymouth, and spent his working life at sea and later as a marine stores dealer in St Ives. He took up painting in old age after his wife died, using ship’s paint on scraps of card and wood. His boats, harbours and lighthouses ignore perspective and were mostly painted from memory. Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood found his work in 1928 and it became a touchstone for British modernism, though he died poor in the Madron workhouse near Penzance.