John Atkinson Grimshaw

John Atkinson Grimshaw's painted subjects of the 1870's and 1880's were hugely resonant with a newly wealthy class of industrialists turned art patrons in Grimshaw's hometown of Leeds, and in other booming Northern industrial towns.  These same Leeds patrons, who made Grimshaw rich and famous in his lifetime, were responsible for the contemporary art shows that informed Grimshaw's early days as an aspiring painter, and who were delighted to buy his views of beautiful, mysterious manor houses, which seemed tailor-made to celebrate the fruits of their own labor and prosperity. 

This evening scene, with the artist's trademark use of cool moonlight in contrast with the bright illumination of a stately manor home, has two aims.  This suburban oasis reflects life outside of cities such as Leeds, but Grimshaw's use of light and atmosphere still underscore nature's (and by extension, art itself's) ability to cast an affecting and eerie spell.  David Bromfield explains:  "Grimshaw was to return [a] sense of intimate vision to the urban environment...The tension between industry and work on the one hand and art on the other was deeply felt by most Victorian artists and writers...The contradiction between the freedom believed to be inherent in art and nature and in industry was often resolved for Victorians by...the pursuit of the peace of the hearth.  The grand suburban home epitomized the Victorian’s ideal for all.  Part myth, part an elaborate and reassuring sign of prosperity, it was never simply a place to live."(David Bromfield, Atkinson Grimshaw, exh. cat., W. Yorkshire, 1979, p. 11)

Often, these images feature one lonely figure who recedes from the viewer in contemplation, and therefore this work, of a couple walking closely together in the richly textured moonlight is unusual.  The quiet lane holds much of Grimshaw's best-loved imagery: a lattice-work of bare tree branches, an imposing wall softened by mottled moss, shimmering wet pavement, and the impressive far-off mansion.  But the two figures standing close enough to cast one shadow give the work a romance not often felt among the artist's suburban lanes.