Alfred Wallis

Born in 1855, Alfred Wallis spent most of his life by the sea, working as a mariner in the Merchant Navy and later running a marine stores business in St Ives, Cornwall. It wasn't until after his wife Susan's death in 1922, at the age of 70 in 1925, that Wallis picked up a paintbrush. He later told artist Ben Nicholson that he started painting "for company because his wife had died and he did not care for the rest of the company in St Ives." Wallis was entirely self-taught,…