John Atkinson Grimshaw

MacConnal Mason, London;
Private collection

STRUCTURE The canvas has been relined and is stable. The paint surface is in in good, stable condition - clean and ready to hang. ULTRAVIOLET UV light reveals an uneven and opaque varnish which makes examination difficult. However there is clear evidence of a small area of retouching to the rigging, lower left and a small area to the figure, lower right., and possibly to the roof line, upper right. These retouchings have been carefully executed and are not visible to the naked eye. FRAME Held in a later plaster moulded frame in good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

'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)

Grimshaw celebrated the age of industry, commerce and conspicuous wealth in a series of paintings in which moonlight and lamplight contrast with one another and skeletal trees or ship's rigging are interchangeable. Often there is a suggestion of social division; of a servant girl making her way home through puddled streets before the imposing facade of her master's home, or a homeward-bound farmer wending through a suburban street. In the present picture of the docks at Hull with the sailed-barges and steamers, horse-drawn hansoms makes their way along the wet cobbled road which reflects the gaslight of the shop windows that face the dock. A young woman shelters under an umbrella in the light of a lamp-post as she makes her way along the pavement. On the other side of the road another woman carrying a basket stops to talk to the men loitering on the dockside.

Bromfield has interpreted Grimshaw's port scenes as 'icons of commerce and the city. They are remarkable in that they record the contemporary port's role within Victorian life; they appealed directly to Victorian pride and energy. They also show that same darkness, a mysterious lack of complete experience of the subject which one associates with large cities and big business, which Dickens recounts so well in Bleak House and Great Expectations and for which Grimshaw's moonlight became a perfect metaphor.' (ibid Bromfield, p. 15). The imposing three-domed building visible through the hazy evening fog in the present picture was the Dock Offices, now Hull Maritime Museum and the monument is that of William Wilberforce, the Yorkshire MP and anti-slavery campaigner. The monument, built in 1834 comprised a ninety foot Doric column upon which stands a twelve foot statue of Wilberforce. It stood for almost a hundred years at the edge of Princes Dock until the 1930s when the dock was closed and the monument was moved. On the left of the composition, behind the skeletal rigging of the sail ships is the silhouette of St John's Church, now demolished. Another picture of Princes Docks dated 1882 is in the collection of the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull.