PROPERTY FROM AN AMERICAN COLLECTION
John Atkinson Grimshaw
THE POOL AND LONDON BRIDGE AT NIGHT
LOT SOLD.
555,000 USD
Details & Cataloguing
Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale
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John Atkinson Grimshaw
1836 - 1893
THE POOL AND LONDON BRIDGE AT NIGHT
Signed Atkinson Grimshaw and dated 1884+ (lower right)
Oil on canvas
Painted in 1884.
21 7/8 by 34 5/8 in.
55.6 by 87.9 cm
Read Condition Report
Read Condition Report
Oil on canvas
Painted in 1884.
21 7/8 by 34 5/8 in.
55.6 by 87.9 cm
Provenance
Mrs. K. Andrews (and sold: Christie's, London, June 5, 1981, lot 58)
Sale: Sotheby's, London, December 13, 1989, lot 82
Richard Green Fine Paintings, Ltd., London (acquired by 1989)
Private Collection, North America
Richard Green Fine Paintings, Ltd., London (acquired by 1996)
Private Collection, North America
Richard Green Fine Paintings, Ltd., London (acquired by 1998)
Private Collection, North America (and sold: Sotheby's, London, November 10, 1999, lot 142)
Willow Gallery, London
Wally Findlay Galleries, New York
Acquired from the above
Sale: Sotheby's, London, December 13, 1989, lot 82
Richard Green Fine Paintings, Ltd., London (acquired by 1989)
Private Collection, North America
Richard Green Fine Paintings, Ltd., London (acquired by 1996)
Private Collection, North America
Richard Green Fine Paintings, Ltd., London (acquired by 1998)
Private Collection, North America (and sold: Sotheby's, London, November 10, 1999, lot 142)
Willow Gallery, London
Wally Findlay Galleries, New York
Acquired from the above
Catalogue Note
The industrial majesty of the Thames energized and inspired nineteenth century artists from J.M.W. Turner to Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley to James McNeill Whistler. Just as each of these artists established a trademark style, John Atkinson Grimshaw was renowned for his iconic and atmospheric moonlit scenes and adored by Victorian audiences. In the mid-1880s, he turned his attention to the historic river for a series of works, of which The Pool and London Bridge at Night is a superlative example. Grimshaw’s artistic ingenuity was much admired by his contemporaries, and Whistler himself remarked: "I considered myself the inventor of Nocturnes until I saw Grimmy's moonlit pictures" (as quoted in Lionel Lambourne, Victorian Painting, London, 1999, p. 112).
In The Pool and London Bridge at Night, deep darkness is permeated by the soft, broken glow of the full moon piercing the clouds. The bustle of the docks is stilled by the late hour; the only movement in the entire composition is that of the oarsmen on the barges at right, hauled by a steam-tug towards the docks. Grimshaw expertly manipulates light—both of the moon and reflections of gas lamps extending over London Bridge in the distance— to reveal the warehouses, merchant ships and barges lining the river, important symbols of the largest and most industrialized city of the time.
In The Pool and London Bridge at Night, deep darkness is permeated by the soft, broken glow of the full moon piercing the clouds. The bustle of the docks is stilled by the late hour; the only movement in the entire composition is that of the oarsmen on the barges at right, hauled by a steam-tug towards the docks. Grimshaw expertly manipulates light—both of the moon and reflections of gas lamps extending over London Bridge in the distance— to reveal the warehouses, merchant ships and barges lining the river, important symbols of the largest and most industrialized city of the time.
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