Alfred Wallis (1855-1942)

'Wallis painted over the original picture when it was still in its frame: examination of the edges suggests that it was probably a landscape of the farms on the road from St Ives to Zennor. The shore line at the top of the picture is pure Wallis' (see exhibition catalogue, Alfred Wallis, London, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1968).

Adrian Stokes (1902-1972), the previous owner of this work, was a British art critic, writer and painter. Stokes frequently supplied the artist with painting materials, and he formed a large collection of his paintings. He was a close friend of Ben Nicholson, and Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth stayed with the Stokes when they moved to St Ives in 1939.