Alfred Wallis latest news & articles 2026

~~ 18 October 2026 ~~

UPDATE - SO FAR THE CAMPAIGN HAS REACHED £2760! MANY THANKS TO ALL SUPPORTERS WHO HAVE DONATED AND PLEDGED.

I funded the first edition of Alfred Wallis Child Pauper To Artistic Luminary myself because I believed his real story deserved to be told. After winning the top award at the Holyer an Gof Publishers’ Awards 2026, the book is almost sold out.

I would love to keep Wallis's real story in print, but I can only cover 25% (£3000) of the cost of producing a second edition. In order to do this I need to raise a further £9,000.

If you would like to help ensure Alfred Wallis's true story lives on, I'd be enormously grateful for your support.

Through my Crowdfunder page, your name can become part of the story — selected donation levels give recognition as a supporter on the Alfred Wallis website or in the second edition itself, helping to keep his legacy alive for future generations. Higher levels also include the opportunity to enjoy an online or in-person talk about Wallis and the research behind the book.

Many thanks, Matilda Webb, September 2026

~~ 24 September 2026 ~~

A huge thank you to all those who joined me on my four Alfred Wallis walks at St Ives September Festival 2026. Friends were made and Wallis's St Ives came alive again.

~~ 29 August 2026 ~~

On this day, eighty-four years ago, Alfred Wallis died in the former workhouse at Madron, aged 87.

He was buried in a grave bought by the Carbis Bay artists, but they left it unmarked. Three years later, it was covered with beautiful tiles made by the potter Bernard Leach.

Emblematic of Wallis’s work, the tiles feature a lighthouse standing sentinel amidst huge waves, with, in Leach’s words, “a door at the bottom and a little man climbing into the dark to climb into the light”.

The grave has long been a mecca for visitors from all over the world, testament to the widespread admiration for the work of both Alfred Wallis and Bernard Leach.

Pictured here is the 2005 visit to Wallis’s grave by the Japanese artist Samiro Yunoki (1922–2024). The article in the second image is written by his granddaughter Yuko Maruyama, for the latest issue of Mingei.

She writes that Yunoki greatly admired Wallis’s work and felt an affinity with him through their shared love of ships, and because, for both men, painting had become part of everyday life - and a source of joy.

~~ 28 August 2026 ~~

Why Alfred Wallis, and Why Now?

‘Wallis did not simply paint an imagined Cornwall. He painted out of a particular life, in a particular place, at a particular moment of change.’

Winner of the Most Outstanding Entry at this year’s Holyer an Gof awards, author Matilda Webb reflects on her artist biography, Alfred Wallis Child Pauper To Artistic Luminary.

~~ 8 August 2026 ~~

8 August 1855 is the date recorded on Alfred Wallis's birth certificate. The date inscribed on his grave - 18 August - was given to Bernard Leach, but is incorrect.

Alfred Wallis was born at 5 Pond Lane, a notorious slum beside the market in Devonport, Devon, where he spent the first four years of his life.

A contemporary newspaper described Pond Lane as "a nest of dilapidated tenements, the removal of which would open and ventilate this pestiferous neighbourhood". It added that those "who had the courage to enter here encountered abominations".

These were the surroundings in which Wallis's remarkable story began.

'Alfred Wallis Child Pauper To Artistic Luminary' reveals the harsh realities of his impoverished childhood, the tragedy that overtook his immediate family, and how he went on to become a resilient mariner, devoted family man, successful businessman, and ultimately an artist who found lasting personal fulfilment.

~~ 21 July 2026 ~~

I was delighted to be on BBC Radio Cornwall to talk about Alfred Wallis Child Pauper To Artistic Luminary after winning the Leonard Truran Cup.

~~ 4 July 2026 ~~

I am thrilled to announce that Alfred Wallis Child Pauper To Artistic Luminary was awarded the Leonard Truran Cup for the 'Most Outstanding Entry' at the annual Holyer an Gof Publishers' Awards, which were held at Kresen Kernow by Gorsedh Kernow on 4 July 2026. The book also won the Adult Non-Fiction category for Social, cultural and political history.

~~ 31 July 2026 ~~

Bringing together Wallis’s paintings and works by artists who collected them, this exhibition explores his lasting influence on modernist approaches to perspective, form, colour and composition, while celebrating a body of work that remains entirely unique.

I will be giving a talk on Alfred Wallis as part of the exhibition on 15 April 2027.

~~ 19 March 2026 ~~

Alfred Wallis sold this painting of a steamer to art collector Lucy Wertheim in 1930, when she visited him to buy his work for her new London gallery.

‘Steamer’ by Wallis is now part of The Bigger Picture 2026 - Art around Cromer with Towner Eastbourne. Featuring full-size reproductions from the Towner Eastbourne collection, the artworks are presented across public spaces -transforming the coastal town of Cromer in Norfolk into a free, accessible, open-air gallery.