John Atkinson Grimshaw 1836-1893

Bought from a London dealer circa 1900;

Thence by descent.

In the 1880’s John Atkinson Grimshaw began to paint scenes in London particularly views on the Thames. The atmosphere in the capital was a particular attraction to the artist, with its dense fogs and river mists. His time spent in London was an important period for the artist and Alexander Robertson comments ‘that Grimshaw’s paintings of this period have a much greater breadth as he sought to accommodate the possibilities of river and city life’. (Alexander Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, 1988, page 75) In the 1880s John Atkinson Grimshaw's son Louis painted alongside his father and several paintings of this period are collaborations of the work of father and son. However Alexander Robertson of Leeds City Art Gallery has verified that this picture is solely the work of John Atkinson Grimshaw.

In 1885 Grimshaw moved to London and stayed at Anderton’s Hotel at 162/164 Fleet Street in The Strand and then rented a studio at Trafalgar Studios in Manresa Road, Chelsea until 1887. At this time Miss Agnes Leaf worked for him as a model and during this period he exhibited a number of works at the Royal Academy including Salthouse Docks, Liverpool and Dulce Domum in 1885 and Iris in 1886. It was during this period that Grimshaw began his friendship with Whistler and both painters would spend time in each other’s studio. Whistler who lived a short walk across Chelsea Bridge greatly admired his Moonlit scenes and there was a genuine admiration between the two artists. He is reputed to have said ‘ I thought I had invented the Nocturne, until I saw Grimmy’s moonlight’. One can assume that Grimshaw must have mixed with the progressive elements in the art world during this period as Sir Coutts Lindsay invited him to exhibit at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1885, where he exhibited A Vestal, an exceptional and highly sophisticated work (Sotheby’s, 9 June 1998, lot 33).

In London, Grimshaw produced many paintings of urban and river life, observing contemporary London life in the Suburbs around Putney, Wandsworth and Sheen but also in the heart of the capital with views of Piccadilly, Fleet Street, The Strand, Chelsea and Hampstead. Evening on the Strand looking towards St. Mary’s, London painted in 1892 is a scene that the artist would have known well during his stay at Anderton’s Hotel on the Strand and is one of his finest views of London. In the present painting Grimshaw has paid particular attention to the effects of artificial light from the street lamps and shop windows as reflected in wet surfaces. He has echoed Elizabeth Gaskell who in Mary Barton of 1848 had written ‘it is a pretty sight to walk through a street with lighted shops; the gas is so brilliant, the display of goods so much more vividly shown by day’. (Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton, Harmondsworth, 1986, p. 101.)

This view of Victorian London shows The Strand with St. Mary-Le- Strand, the graceful baroque church built between 1714 and 1717 by the architect James Gibbs. On the right hand side is Somerset house built between 1776 and 1786 as government offices in the manner of a 16th century Palazzo. The use of the building has changed throughout its history, from housing the first Royal Academy of Art in the Nineteenth century to making a home for the Courtauld Galleries, the Wallace Collection and the Registry of Probate in the twentieth century. Further on down The Strand we see St Clements Danes Church behind St.Mary Le-Strand, which was built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1680. It is at this point that The Strand ends and Fleet Street begins continuing to Ludgate Circus. Evening on the Strand looking towards St. Mary’s Church, London is among one of Grimshaw’s most commanding views of London and is similar to Cornhill of 1885 (private collection) and Piccadilly at Night of 1885-6 (sold Sotheby’s, 11 June 1998, lot 171).