A Sailing Ship
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A three-masted sailing ship in white and green sails moves through choppy water, painted in thick, rough brushstrokes on what appears to be a scrap of board or cardboard. The sky is gray-blue with patches of cream and ochre showing through, and a dark green landmass appears at the upper right. The rigging is drawn in dark lines over the paint. The surface is scratched, cracked, and weathered. Wallis was a retired Cornish fisherman and rag-and-bone man who began painting at seventy, after his wife died, using ship's paint on scraps of cardboard and driftwood. He was discovered in 1928 by Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood, who walked past his open door in St Ives and saw his paintings pinned to the walls. He had no training and no interest in the art world. He painted the boats and harbors he remembered from his working life, and the paintings have a directness and material honesty that trained artists spent careers trying to achieve.