John Atkinson Grimshaw

Richard Green, London

The following condition report has been prepared by Hamish Dewar Ltd., 13 & 14 Mason't Yard, Duke Street St James's, London SW1y 6BU: Structural condition The artist's board is providing an even and stable structural support. Paint surface The paint surface has a relatively even but glossy varnish layer. There are some intermittent small abrasions along the left vertical framing edge. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows what would appear to be small lines of retouching within the sky towards the upper left corner of the composition. There are also some areas of fluorescence within the wall on the right of the composition and within the houses and the wall on the left of the composition. This appears to be due to a very heavy build up of medium in these areas. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in good and stable condition and would benefit from the retouching of the abrasions on the left vertical framing edge.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

‘Grimshaw made commercial life acceptable by giving contemporary reality a romantic sheen; his moonlight paintings could be seen as an antidote to materialism. Grimshaw's paintings were, therefore, a reassuring statement about contemporary images; in a period of great change they present a wistful nostalgia for the past.' (Alexander Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, 1988, pp. 90-94).

A Moonlit Street after Rain is the type of picture for which Grimshaw is best-known, capturing the tranquillity of a still autumnal night, the suburban road bathed in soft moonlight through chilled evening mist. The white light of the full moon contrasts with the golden glow of gaslight from the houses and is perhaps symbolic of the two worlds of the natural and the man-made. For him the streets in the outskirts of his hometown of Leeds were romantic and poetic places with the grand mansions of the wealthy and wide roads scored by the wheels of carts and barrows and peopled by only one or two housemaids or cart-men. J.M. Whistler commented after having seen Grimshaw's work, 'I considered myself the inventor of Nocturnes until I saw Grimmy's moonlit pictures.' (L. Lambourne, Victorian Painting, 1999, p. 112). However, Grimshaw’s almost photographic paintings were very different to the Impressionistic night scenes painted by Whistler. Grimshaw embraced modern technologies and was fascinated by photography; he sometimes experimented with a camera obscura.

The lone maid wandering to work beneath the moonlight with a basket of provisions under her arm, presents a romantic notion of servitude and Grimshaw’s painting rarely make a socio-political statement. However Grimshaw was not a high-born artist looking down upon workers without an understanding of the hardships of life. He lived in stylish comfort at Knostrop Old Hall, a beautiful seventeenth century mansion close to Temple Newsam but his father had been a policeman and Grimshaw himself had known the drudgery of labour when he worked as a clerk for the Great Northern Railway.  He also experienced tragic bereavements and an economic crisis that almost ruined him. Grimshaw’s series of emotive paintings create a sense of stillness and calm which recall the lines of Lord Alfred Tennyson's Enoch Arden;

'The small house,
The climbing street, the mill, the leafy lanes,
The peacock-yew tree and the lonely Hall...
The chill November dawns and dewy-glooming downs,
The gentle shower, the smell of the dying leaves...'

Grimshaw’s primary influence was from the Pre-Raphaelites and it was from their work that he took inspiration to seek to represent the differing moods of the seasons, weather and light. The way in which he has here captured the realism of the wet leaf-strewn road is masterful and his atmospheric use of light was the result of endless study of its subtle nuances.  His 'paintings of dampened gas-lit streets and misty waterfronts conveyed an eerie warmth as well as alienation in the urban scene.' (P.J. Waller, Town, City and Nation, 1983, p. 99).