John Atkinson Grimshaw

Richard Green, London, where acquired by Mary and Christopher Soames, 10 May 1968

The canvas has been lined. There is a fine craquelure pattern in parts, the paint surface appears dirty otherwise the work appears in good overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals an opaque varnish. There appear to be some minor flecked retouchings to the canvas: lower right corner, upper storey of the right hand building, left hand building and in the sky. Held in a simple gilt frame.
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'I considered myself the inventor of Nocturnes until I saw Grimmy's moonlit pictures'. (J. M. Whistler, quoted in L. Lambourne, Victorian Painting, 1999, p.112)

During the 1880s Grimshaw was living in London, having taken rooms at Trafalgar studios in Manresa Road. It was at this time that Grimshaw became friends with Whistler whose studio was close by. Whilst Grimshaw’s most renowned paintings of London usually include views of the Thames river, his suburban street scenes painted around Chelsea, Putney, Hampstead and, in this case, Wandsworth, are as beautifully executed and given the same attention to detail. We are presented with a nocturnal street scene with the moon hidden behind the buildings to the right. The moonlight silhouettes the skeletal trees that are bare of their leaves, indicating the scene to be set on a winter’s evening. The softly glowing oil lamps that line the road seem redundant in the bright light of the moon that floods the street. Instead, the lamps are more reminiscent of stars as they twinkle in the low evening’s light. The people, together with the buildings, loom out from the dense fog that was common in London during the latter half of the 1800s due to the city’s rapid industrialization. Grimshaw cleverly masks the unpleasant aspects of the city, such as the damp, the mud and the thick fog, and creates his own nostalgic and timeless scene of London, appealing to contemporary viewers who were living in a time of great change. He uses the fog to create a mysterious atmosphere that echoes both the industrial Dickensian London as well as the romantic poems of Tennyson and Keats.

There is a stillness and calm conveyed in the composition. The street is almost empty with no carriages in sight and only a small collection of people who walk along the pavements going about their business. However, this does not mean to say Grimshaw neglects his attention to detail, but focuses on the two buildings in the foreground and the activity surrounding them. A man pulling a cart can be seen talking to a lady and her child, the light from the shop window catching the items on his cart he is trying to sell. On the right, figures are shown gazing into the windows of the ironmonger’s shop, whose merchandise can be clearly seen, lit up by the bright yellow light from inside. On the opposite side of the street, glass bottles glint in the window of the ‘Sun Hotel’ and the advertising bill on the wall outside of the public house lists the departure times of the coach to Windsor. Grimshaw has even observed that both Ind Coope and Burton’s beers are sold at the establishment.

Wandsworth by Moonlight is a brilliant example of Grimshaw’s expert ability as a painter of moonlight. His signature rendering of the light creates eerily beautiful nocturnal scenes which capture Victorian Britain so completely, forming lasting images as evocative then as they remain today.