John Atkinson Grimshaw

Sotheby's, London, 17 December 1986, lot 204, where purchased by the present owner

Original canvas. One or two minor flecks of paint loss near the upper left corner and extreme centre left edge and some minor craquelure in the moon, only visible upon close inspection. Overall the work appears in good overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals an opaque varnish; some isolated spot of retouchings in the trees by the left side. Held in a silver-gilt composite frame.
"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."

John Atkinson Grimshaw painted a series of views of suburban streets in London and Yorkshire from the 1870s onwards and in the 1880s he painted some of his most beautiful pictures of this subject. The streets are rarely deserted in these romantic nocturnes, human activity embodied here by the carts-man making the last deliveries of the day. The cart has stopped momentarily while its driver converses with a person wandering homewards along the pavement. The chill, brilliant silvery light of the early evening moon which is in its fullest form, reflects against the clouds of the sky creating a halo of rainbow light. The light also refracts from the glass surface of a lake beyond the old stone wall and from the puddles made in the road by the cart-wheels. As night draws in the residents of the elegant ivy-clad mansion have retired to the warmth of gaslight and firelight which glows from the windows. It is late autumn or winter and the trees are bare of their leaves, skeletal against the malachite of the sky and creating a filigree pattern that frames the curve of the sinuous road.  

Moonlight after Rain depicts an unidentified view and is probably an amalgam of views in North Yorkshire, rather than a specific identifiable location. As Alexander Robertson states, 'Just as myth and legend were to be plundered for subjects, so actual and historical houses could be put together to form an archetypical mansion'. This series of pictures 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...'

Although Grimshaw was inspired by the modernism of industrial dockyards and lamplit city commercialism, he was also a great admirer of the crumbling heritage of England, with a deep love for Elizabethan and Jacobean architecture. Amongst the items which remained in his estate when he died, were a handful of his most precious books, including A History of Hardwick Hall of 1835. Grimshaw painted many street scenes in which beautiful ancient houses stand hauntingly silent, bathed in the golden dawn light or the mysterious shadows of evening and surrounded by birch trees stripped bare by the approaching winter.