Artist: Alfred Wallis
Date: 1934
Medium: Oil on card
Dimensions: 33.3 x 64 cm
Credit: Towner Collection, the Lucy Wertheim Bequest. Image Towner Eastbourne
Alfred Wallis was born in Devon and went to sea as a cabin boy at the age of nine, later moving to St Ives where he was a fisherman and rag-and-bone dealer. He began painting at the age of seventy on pieces of scrap board and card, painting from memory and portraying the transition from sail to steam. Whilst his naïve self-taught style was much appreciated in his lifetime by notable local artists such as Ben Nicholson, he achieved little commercial success and died in poor circumstances.
Steamer evokes a stormy coastal day at sea as the vessel ploughs ahead through choppy waves.