John Atkinson Grimshaw

Richard Green, London;
Private collection

London, Richard Green, John Atkinson Grimshaw, 2003, no.16

The board appears to be sound, very slightly bowed. The work appears in good overall condition, clean and ready to hang. Ultraviolet light reveals an opaque varnish which makes the surface difficult to read conclusively. Appear to be a two or three minor flecks near the masts in the centre of sky. Held in a gilt composite frame.
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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."

In his catalogue for the exhibition of Grimshaw’s work in 1979 David Bromfield 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.' (David Bromfield, Atkinson Grimshaw 1836-1893, exhibition catalogue, 1979-1980, p. 15).

Grimshaw celebrated the modernity of the nineteenth century; 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. In the present picture of the docks at Hull with the sailed-barges and steamers, horse-drawn hansoms make their way along the wet cobbled road which reflects the gaslight of the shop windows that face the dock. A young woman has stopped in the glow of the shop-windows and lamplight to unfurl her umbrella to protect her from the light rain whilst on the opposite pavement a group of labourers are in conversation.

The width of the harbour-side street and the large number of ships-masts visible in the present picture, demonstrates how busy Hull's docks were in the late nineteenth century. It was one of the busiest mercantile ports in the country with the associated wealth and pride that brought architectural grandeur to the cityscape.  The imposing three-domed building in the present painting was the Dock Offices (it now houses Hull Maritime Museum), the headquarters of the Hull Dock Company in Queen Victoria Square. This magnificent example of Victorian architecture was built in 1871 and was relatively new when it was painted by Grimshaw which demonstrates the modernity of his cityscapes. The monument to the left 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 stood 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 can be discerned the silhouette of St John's Church, now demolished. Another picture of Princes Docks also dated 1882 is in the collection of the Ferens Art Gallery which now stands where St John’s Church once stood (another version sold in these rooms, 17 May 2011, lot 8).