John Atkinson Grimshaw 1836-1893

STRUCTURE Original canvas. CATALOGUE COMPARISON The painting is slightly richer and darker in tone than the illustration suggests. PAINT SURFACE The paint surface is in good clean condition with no sign of restoration. ULTRAVIOLET UV light reveals a few flecks of retouching in the sky just above the coach, otheriwse original condition. FRAME Held in a plaster gilt frame in good condition.
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The cities of northern Britain were greatly inspiring to the Victorian painter of moonlight, John Atkinson Grimshaw whose views of Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Scarborough and Liverpool capture the spirit of the glory days of industrialisation. No city held him in thrall for longer than Liverpool and it was widely recognised by his contemporaries that the paintings were not merely topographical or architectural, but were homages to the majesty of Britain's industrial advance and achievement.

'The work of Atkinson Grimshaw is valuable and unique in several respects. He made a great popular success out of that amalgam of Pre-Raphaelite sentiment, nature and industry that dominated the culture of northern England in the later nineteenth century. His work is our only visual equivalent to the great epics of industrial change, the novels of Gaskell and Dickens.' (David Bromfield, Atkinson Grimshaw 1836-1893, exhibition catalogue, 1979-1980, p. 5)

Liverpool was a very popular subject with Grimshaw's patrons and he painted various views including Salthouse Docks on a number of occasions.  One version was exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1885 and received high acclaim in the Art Journal which declared that the artist,'...invests the subject with something akin to poetry'.  This poetry stems from Grimshaw's ability to prompt the viewer's imagination. The line of masts stand proud against the evening glow evoking a sense of trade, travel and Britain's role in the wider world.  The glow of  gaslight illuminates the characters, the well dressed patrons who frequent the parade boutiques, the workmen and dockers and the street urchins.  The overall atmosphere is ambiguous; but sinister or tantalising it is undoubtedly fascinating.