Lot 133: ALFRED WALLIS (1855-1942) - Sailing Ship Aeroplane and Airship

ALFRED WALLIS (1855-1942)
Sailing Ship Aeroplane and Airship
signed 'A WALLIS' (upper left)
pencil and oil on board
6 1/2 x 14 1/4 in. (16.5 x 36.2 cm.), shaped


PROVENANCE:
with Crane Kalman Gallery, London, as 'Green Two-Master', where purchased
by Sir Ronald Grierson in November 1966, and by descent.
LITERATURE:
E. Mullins, Alfred Wallis Cornish Primitive Painter, London, 1967, pp. 9, 68, pl.
36.
R. Jones, Alfred Wallis Artist and Mariner, Tiverton, 2001, p. 107, illustrated.
R. Jones, Alfred Wallis Artist and Mariner, London, 2018, p. 173, illustrated.
Sir Ronald Hugh Grierson (1921-2014) was a German-born British
businessman, government advisor, and British Army oficer. In 1939 he
went up to Balliol College, Oxford, although this was short-lived, due to
the outbreak of the Secord World War. After serving with the Black Watch,
he became attached to the Special Air Service, where he trained as a
parachutist, seeing action in North Africa, Italy, France, the Low Countries,
Germany and Norway. He was mentioned in dispatches and briefy
captured in 1945: he was subsequently promoted to the rank of lieutenantcolonel
in the SAS. Post-war, in business, he was Managing Director of the
investment bank S.G. Warburg from 1948 to 1985, and Vice-Chairman of
General Electric Company (GEC) from 1968 to 1996. He was a member
of the Arts Council and a trustee of the Royal Academy and the Phillips
Collection in Washington D.C. He promoted initiatives for international
dialogue, including the European Studies Foundation at Oxford University.
He was knighted in 1990.