P. Z. 11 - Alfred Wallis

A characteristic maritime scene by Alfred Wallis, featuring a Penzance fishing boat rendered in his signature naïve, flattened style on cardboard.

Alfred Wallis, a Cornish fisherman turned painter, produced this work during his later years in St Ives. Wallis famously began painting in his seventies, using scavenged materials such as cardboard scraps and household paint. His lack of formal training resulted in a unique visual language, where perspective is flattened and objects are sized according to their importance rather than their distance from the viewer.

In this composition, the fishing vessel marked P. Z. 11 occupies the centre, flanked by a lighthouse and harbour structures. The registration letters P. Z. denote the vessel's home port of Penzance. Wallis applied paint directly to the cardboard, often leaving the raw surface visible. His palette is restricted to the limited range of paints he could acquire, typically greys, blacks, and earthy tones, punctuated by the distinct red of the lighthouse. The birds are rendered as simple, repetitive marks, creating a sense of movement across the sky.

Wallis's work was discovered by Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood in 1928, who recognised the authenticity and raw energy in his approach. His paintings capture the maritime life of Cornwall with an immediacy that avoids the conventions of academic art. By prioritising memory and personal experience over optical accuracy, Wallis created a body of work that remains distinct within the history of British art. This print captures the texture of the original cardboard support and the direct, unrefined application of paint that defines his output.