Alfred Wallis (British, 1855-1942)
Three Trees
signed 'A WALLIS' (upper left); further signed and titled 'Alfred Wallis/3 Trees' (verso), and inscribed and dated 'for Bryan/St Ives 54/belongs to Nicholson/Chy an Kerris/Carbis Bay/Cornwall' (in Ben Nicholson's hand, verso)
oil on card laid on thick card
15 x 34.9 cm. (5 7/8 x 13 3/4 in.)
Footnotes:
Provenance
Ben Nicholson, by whom gifted to
Bryan Robertson
With Crane Kalman Gallery, London, 27 July 1968, where acquired by the family of the present owner
Private Collection, U.K.

'Nothing in Wallis is more child-like than the trees he painted. In contrast to his ships, he never tried to describe his trees accurately – perhaps because there was no rigging for the old sailor in him to bother about. He just set his trees down on the ground like great black skittles sprouting hundreds of little stiff arms. What did impress him about trees was how their dark massiveness could belittle the houses and people beneath; also how a forest can become a secret and magic garden full of birds, animals and flowers.' (Edwin Mullins, Alfred Wallis, Cornish Primitive Painter, Unicorn Press Ltd., 2014, p.84).

In the present example, three hulking trees dominate the foreground, set against green hills and dwarfing the houses that flank them. To each side of the composition, a footpath can be seen punctuated with that favoured motif of Wallis, a dark gate. Many of his landscapes are of places in west Cornwall that he knew from his walks from St Ives. Houses with gardens behind a path with large trees is a recurring theme, reminiscent of the coastal path from St Ives to Carbis Bay. In the upper distance, Wallis has shown the hills of west Penwith. The trees seem to have had their tops chopped off and the mysterious horizontal marks below the trees could be felled logs; it is likely that Wallis has depicted something he witnessed.

A dedication from Ben Nicholson to the picture's next distinguished owner Bryan Robertson O.B.E. is present verso. The inscription is dated 1954, just two years after Robertson's ground-breaking appointment as Director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery.