Lot 424
  • 424

JOHN ATKINSON GRIMSHAW | A November Morning

Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 USD
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Description

  • John Atkinson Grimshaw
  • A November Morning
  • signed Atkinson Grimshaw and dated 1883+ (lower right) 
  • oil on canvas
  • 20 by 29 7/8 in.; 50.8 by 75.9 cm

Provenance

Richard Green, London
Private Collection (acquired from the above)
Private Collection (by descent from the above, his father, and sold, Sotheby's, London, December 15, 2016, lot 20, illustrated)
Acquired at the above sale

Condition

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work is in beautiful condition. The canvas is unlined and still on its original stretcher. The paint layer is clean and varnished. There may be four or five dots of restoration in the roadway in the lower center. There is restoration in the upper left and right corners, upper center edge, and lower left and lower right corners. There is a tiny group of retouches at the top of the trees above the house on the right, and a horizontal line of retouches between the branches in the upper sky. The work should be hung as is.
"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."

Catalogue Note

Silhouetted against a luminous golden sky, John Atkinson Grimshaw meticulously renders an English street to evocatively convey the dawn in autumn. Grimshaw painted a series of these street scenes throughout the 1880s, predominantly painted in and around the suburbs of Leeds. Unrivaled in his atmospheric depiction of the evening and the first light of the morning, these paintings are perhaps his most evocative and iconic works. In these paintings of roads and lanes, between the high stone walls hiding mansions from prying eyes, a solitary female figure makes her way down an otherwise deserted road. The result is a cinematic panorama. Victorians had a huge appetite for narrative paintings of romantic intrigue, themes which were also prevalent in the novels, plays and poetry of the age. Grimshaw himself was inspired by the writings of Wordsworth, Browning, Shelley and, in particular, Tennyson.

While Grimshaw was exacting in his depictions of the great cities of Britain and smaller fishing villages, paintings like A November Morning gave him the opportunity to indulge in the effect of color and atmosphere, with subtle contrasts of golden hues, panes of richly painted textures and graphic silhouette.