On this day in 1876, Alfred Wallis was sailing home from Labrador on the Belle Aventure - the schooner damaged but safe after nearly capsizing in a ferocious storm in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Wallis must have felt a surge of relief at the sight of the Lizard Lighthouse, a familiar beacon...

For me, this enigmatic painting by Alfred Wallis conjures the spirit of an ancient All Hallows’ Eve, when the veil between the living and the dead grows thin.It is the beginning of winter - the dark half of the year. The house looks small and ghostly beneath the towering forest. Inside, the living...