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PA Media<\/p>\nJack SilverBBC News, South West<\/p>\n
PA Media<\/p>\n
Self-taught St Ives artist Alfred Wallis is thought to have seen the Forth Rail Bridge – which can be seen in the bottom left – four years after it opened<\/p>\n
A newly-discovered painting by an acclaimed Cornish artist has sold for \u00a320,000.<\/p>\n
The painting by self-taught St Ives artist Alfred Wallis is thought to show the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland.<\/p>\n
The Devon-born artist spent most of his life as a fisherman and his biographer, Matilda Webb, thinks he saw the bridge in 1894 – four years after it opened – when the St Ives fishing fleet sailed up and around the British coast.<\/p>\n
William Summerfield, from London auction house Roseberys, said: “Wallis rarely painted Scottish scenes and this long-lost work, unseen for almost a century, is a remarkable example of his virtuosic sense of colour and mood.”<\/p>\n
The painting has been in a private collection for nearly 90 years and went under the hammer earlier, Roseberys said.<\/p>\n
Mr Summerfield added it would be “fantastic to see it in a Scottish collection”.<\/p>\n
Wallis turning to painting in the 1920s after retiring from fishing, becoming known for his “naive style and maritime subject matter”, the auction house said.<\/p>\n
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PA Media<\/p>\n
Wallis began painting aged 70 to combat loneliness after his wife’s death<\/p>\n
Ms Webb said the painting of the newly-opened bridge showed Wallis, who was known to have visited the North Sea to fish for herring with the Mount’s Bay fleet, was “more widely travelled than previously thought”.<\/p>\n
She believes there is circumstantial evidence he may have joined the St Ives fleet on its annual voyage in 1894, after a court case caused him “significant mental anguish” and damaged his reputation among the local community.<\/p>\n
After retiring, Wallis began painting in 1925, aged 70, to combat loneliness after his wife’s death, Ms Webb said, so would have painted the bridge from memory.<\/p>\n
She added the auction was “well-timed” as it coincided with the 100th anniversary of Wallis’ painting career, the 135th anniversary of the opening of the Forth Rail Bridge and 10 years since it was made a Unesco World Heritage Site.<\/p>\n