Wallis, Alfred, 1855–1942

Alfred Wallis was a Cornish fisherman and artist. A self-taught artist, his paintings are an excellent example of naïve art, as he disregards perspective and uses scale to convey the relative importance of an object in the scene.

Having worked as a mariner and fisherman, Wallis took up painting later in life and painted his seascapes from memory. Despite receiving attention for his work in his lifetime, he sold few paintings and lived in poverty until his death in 1952.