English artist whose nautical paintings reflect his Cornish seafaring roots. His works, often classified as Naive (technically and thematically simple) art, are collected at the Tate St Ives gallery in Cornwall, England.
He worked as a sailor and fisherman, traveling the seas between Penzance, England and Newfoundland, Canada.
He painted many of his works on canvases made from cardboard boxes.
He married Susan Ward, a woman twenty-one years his senior, in 1876. He and his brother were the Devonport-born children of Jane and Charles Wallis.
He and French painter Henri Rousseau both became known for their works of Naive art.