Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942)
Mount's Bay with St Michael's Mount
signed 'A WALLIS' (lower right)
oil on panel
23.5 x 33 cm. (9 1/4 x 13 in.)
Footnotes:
Provenance
Ben Nicholson and Dame Barbara Hepworth, by whom gifted to
Miss Misomé Peile
With Crane Kalman Gallery, London, May 1986, where acquired by the family of the present owner
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
London, Tate Gallery, Alfred Wallis, organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain, 30 May-30 June 1968, cat.no.34; this exhibition travelled to York, City Art Gallery, 6-28 July, Aberdeen, Aberdeen Art Gallery, 3-25 August, Kendal, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, 31 August-22 September

Mount's Bay with St Michael's Mount enjoys distinguished provenance having formerly been in the collection of Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. The duo were married in 1938 and moved to St Ives the following year just before the outbreak of war, at the invitation of Adrian Stokes and his wife Margaret Mellis. Nicholson however, together with Christopher Wood, had 'discovered' Wallis a decade prior and he was to become the elder artists greatest champion, both buying and promoting his work among some of the most progressive artists, intellectuals and collectors in 1930s Britain. Of that first encounter, Nicholson said 'In August 1928, I went over for the day to St Ives with Kit Wood: this was an exciting day, for not only was it the first time I saw St Ives, but on the way back from Porthmeor beach we passed an open door in Back Road West and through it saw some paintings of ships and houses on odd pieces of paper and cardboard nailed up all over the wall, with particularly large nails through the smallest ones. We knocked on the door and inside found Wallis, and the paintings we got from him then were the first he made.' (Exh.cat., Two Painters, Works by Alfred Wallis and James Dixon, Merrell Holberton London, 1999, p.105).

Wallis's unique approach to perspective and the immediacy of his painting sparked a period of intense experimentation for Ben, clear in his exploration of material and proportion during this pivotal period. An inscription verso shows that the work passed from the Nicholson/Hepworth collection to that of Misome Peile. Peile was born in Hampshire into a naval family and studied art under Leonard Fuller at the St Ives School of Painting from 1939-43, where presumably she encountered the 'St Ives set'. She was an invited member of Newlyn Society of Artists and, in 1949, a founder-member of Penwith Society of Arts.

The present lot depicts Mount's Bay, so named for the presence of St Michael's Mount, and is a stretch of coastline that features repeatedly in the artist's work. Wallis, as a seaman, would have held great appreciation for the bay, understanding the shelter it offered vessels in bad weather, then as it still does today. The location is identifiable by the Mount itself, upper centre, and the Lizard lighthouse, top right. A large ship with full sails dominates the composition whilst a gaff-rigged cutter bobs alongside in the choppy waters and the crew of both vessels can be seen working on board. Alfred Wallis went to sea at an early age and worked as an Ordinary Seaman on merchant sailing ships for at least sixteen years. Crew lists show that at 19 or 20 years of age he sailed from Penzance to Newfoundland on a Westcountry schooner, Pride of the West, and returned on a Devon ship 'Belleaventure' a brigantine similar to the sailing ship that is the main subject of this painting. Wallis was an experienced seaman. He knew the ropes. Climbing the rigging in all weathers, day or night to make sail adjustments and taking his turn at the ship's wheel were all part of his life aboard ship and he shows this in this painting.

With its vivid hues of green and blue, painterly application and map-like composition, the present work is a tour de force by one of Britain's best loved artists, a fact endorsed by the eminent nature of the previous ownership.