Christopher Wood (1901-1930)

Christopher Wood spent the summer of 1928 in Paris, before visiting Cornwall to stay with his close friends the artists Ben and Winifred Nicholson. They were holidaying at Pill Creek near Feock, when the trio took a day-trip to St Ives where they encountered the seaman turned painter, Alfred Wallis. The discovery of this primitive genius had a profound effect on the art of all three: as Winifred Nicholson recalled, 'One only finds the influences one was looking for and I was certainly looking for that one'.

After the Nicholsons' return to London, Wood stayed on until the winter, moving to a cottage on Porthmeor Beach. From here he wrote enthusiastically to Winifred of the Cornish fishermen, 'they look like pirates with big jack boots up to their thighs and skin hats with wings to them like Mercury' (see H. Gresty, loc. cit.).