J OHN A T K IN S ON G RIM S HAW 1836 -Leeds -1893
Exhibition and Sale opens Wednesday 21st September 2011
147 New Bond Street, London, W1S 2TS Telephone: +44 (0)207 493 3939 Email: paintings@richard-green.com Please contact: Penny Marks
www.richard-green.com
iPhone App Cover: Whitby, catalogue no.20 Title page: London Bridge - Night, catalogue no.28
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 1
15/08/2011 14:11
2
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 2
05/08/2011 13:22
J OHN A T K IN S ON G RIM S HAW 1836 -Leeds -1893
3
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 3
05/08/2011 13:22
4
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 4
05/08/2011 13:22
CONTENTS
Foreword BY RICHARD GREEN................................06 Introduction by Alexander Robertson.......08 The Lake District.........................................................14
Lane scenes - Night.........................................................50
1 A moonlight view over Lake Windermere 2 The Screes, Wasdale
15 A moonlit country road 16 November 17 Bonchurch, Isle of Wight 18 The trysting tree
Leeds / Yorkshire..........................................................20
3 A mossy bank, Meanwood, Leeds 4 Autumn twilight, Barden Tower 5 Study of beeches, evening effect 6 In the Pleasaunce 7 A windy night [Gorse under moonlight] 8 Roundhay Lake 9 Stapleton Park, Pontefract 10 Homeward bound
Fishing ports / Dock scenes...................................58
19 Scarborough. High water 20 Whitby 21 Greenock shipping 22 Broomielaw, Glasgow 23 Liverpool London.............................................................................70
24 Heath Street, Hampstead 25 On the Thames, Barnes 26 Old Chelsea 27 Southwark Bridge from Blackfriars 28 London Bridge - Night
Lane scenes - Day/Twilight..............................................40
11 The Rookery 12 An autumnal lane at sunset 13 Autumn gold 14 A golden shower
Chronology...................................................................84
5
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 5
15/08/2011 15:28
FOREWORD BY RICHARD GREEN
am delighted to present our fourth exhibition of paintings by the Victorian artist John Atkinson Grimshaw. It charts his development through significant locations, beginning with Pre-Raphaelite style landscapes inspired by the Lake District, to detailed early woodland studies set in Leeds and the surrounding Yorkshire countryside, to the popular moonlit street and river scenes which document his profitable stay in London. We also have excellent examples of perhaps his best-loved motifs, his golden and moonlit lane scenes and dock views including Whitby, Scarborough, Glasgow, Greenock and Liverpool. The exhibition brings together important works owned by the gallery and outstanding paintings from distinguished private collections. I am very grateful to our clients for lending these rarely-exhibited works. I also wish to thank Alexander Robertson, leading scholar on the artist and author of the seminal monograph entitled Atkinson Grimshaw, for contributing an introductory essay to this catalogue. Alexander was also instrumental in the organisation of the Mercer Art Gallery and Guildhall exhibition of which we are proud sponsors, Atkinson Grimshaw: Painter of Moonlight, the largest display of Grimshaw’s work since the Leeds City Art Gallery exhibition in 1979. We are also grateful to the following scholars for their insights into Grimshaw’s life and work: Jane Sellers, Curator of Art, The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate; Karen Snowden, Head of Collections, Scarborough Museums Trust; Ian Murphy, Curator of Maritime History at the National Museums Liverpool; John Winrow, Assistant Curator, National Museums Liverpool; Sonia Solicari, Principal Curator, Guildhall Art Gallery; Claire Frankland, Museum of London Library; Alex Morgan, National Trust; Professor Robin McInnes, OBE; Fay Brown, Ventnor History Society; Tracy Hawkins, Collections Research Assistant, Glasgow Museums; Theodore Wilkins, Assistant Curator, Leeds Art Gallery; Shaun Gregory and the Friends of Roundhay Park, Leeds.
Richard Green
6
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 6
15/08/2011 15:33
7
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 7
05/08/2011 13:22
Introduction by Alexander Robertson
n 1861 the young Atkinson Grimshaw signed and dated his painting of A mossy bank, Meanwood, Leeds J.A.Grimshaw, August 1st 1861. It was no doubt with some pride that he gave the precise date as a statement asserting that he was now an artist and had left behind his job as a clerk on the Great Northern Railway. This was his first year as a professional artist and he found immediate support among a group of influential Leeds business men. These included a silk manufacturer, a boot and shoe maker and local polemicist and collector Edmund Bates, who praised the young artist for abandoning a source of steady income for the uncertain career as a creator of art. Born at 9 Back Park Street, Leeds in 1836, John Atkinson Grimshaw was the son of David Grimshaw and his wife Mary Atkinson and had three brothers and a sister. Known in the family as Atkinson, the young man became interested in art, but was not encouraged by his strict non-conformist parents to whom such a pastime was considered idle and a waste of time. He is not known to have had any formal training so must have studied painting where he could find it in art shops, dealers and framers in Leeds and in books. What was to become obvious when Grimshaw started to paint was his interest in the natural world and its minute observation. At the time the major art critic propounding such ideas was John Ruskin in his Modern Painters which first began to appear in 1843. There he extolled truth to nature almost as a moral mantra for artists to follow; observing the world in all its natural forms and in the minutest detail. And follow they did, particularly a group of young men who became known as the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood including John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and Ford Madox Brown. Their early work was produced a decade before Grimshaw began to paint, but their ideas and examples had spread around the country.
A mossy bank, Meanwood, Leeds
A moonlight view over Lake Windermere
In 1858 Grimshaw married his cousin Frances Theodosia Hubbarde and was able to leave the family home and lead an independent life. Children quickly followed, but of the fifteen that Mrs Grimshaw was to bear only six survived to adulthood. One of the daughters, Elaine, was later to recall that her mother had told her how the young artist had explored the woods and landscape around Leeds, bringing back stones, moss and leaves for independent study to build up still life compositions which were the subject of his early pictures. In a very early example, A mossy bank (cat. no.3) of 1861, we can see the hesitant beginnings of a surface
8
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 8
15/08/2011 14:16
arrangement to create a pleasing composition of colourful harmony. After only two to three years, Grimshaw was producing paintings of a distinctly Pre-Raphaelite nature, often painted on a white ground and with the most exact detail in strikingly vibrant colours. He no doubt had access to actual examples by the group, possibly from the amazing collection of the Leeds stockbroker Thomas Plint, sold after his death in 1861. Another source of contact would have been the Leeds painter John William Inchbold, who was on the periphery of the group and knew the critic Ruskin personally. Inchbold occasionally threw open his Leeds studio to the public to view his latest pictures and the young Grimshaw could well have taken advantage of this opportunity to gain a first hand knowledge of the artist’s technique and aims. Grimshaw himself had recourse to commercially available photographs of the lakes on which to base his paintings. These tiny prints, barely 2 x 3 inches, acted as an aide-memoire for the finished paintings. This first decade of his career had given him the technical skills to master a range of landscape compositions, but he was now to move away from detailed observation to a more atmospheric approach to the natural scene. In A moonlight view over Lake Windermere (cat. no.1) of 1868, a completely different approach to the natural scene is apparent. Minute detail is sacrificed to an overall harmony of serene poetic atmosphere where moonlight suffuses the whole. Grimshaw had produced his first moonlight picture the previous year and soon realised the potential of this motif. The Screes, Wasdale (cat. no.2) of 1870 also shows something of this change of style. Although a daylight view, the microscopic attention to natural forms has gone and the colour is more subdued. There are still streaks of colour in the hillside and lake side, but now there is a feeling of melancholy and loneliness emphasised by the figure of a woman and a single bird. Grimshaw was now to include this new sense of atmosphere and poetic mood in his views of landscape, having absorbed his earlier studies of natural objects to good effect.
The Screes, Wasdale
In the Pleasaunce
By 1870 the growing success of his career prompted Grimshaw to rent a seventeenth century mansion on the eastern edge of Leeds, Knostrop Old Hall, where he could indulge his whims as an artist in some style. With its panelled rooms, grand oak staircase and walled garden, the Pleasaunce, he could entertain his artist and actor friends. The house, filled
9
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 9
05/08/2011 13:23
Introduction by Alexander Robertson CONTINUED with artistic props and furnished in a modern style, was to be the setting for a series of the modern woman ‘at home’. These paintings were Grimshaw’s move into a section of the art market where the pictures of the French artist James Tissot had become fashionable. In the Pleasaunce (cat. no. 6) of 1875 shows a female model dressed in contemporary costume in a brightly lit garden. Here Grimshaw could exhibit his skill in painting fabrics and show the figure against a colourful outdoor setting. The artist never lost his love of nature or of plants and kept a well-stocked greenhouse at Knostrop, as well as a conservatory at his Scarborough home in the late 1870s. However, the defining subjects of Grimshaw’s career were to be the suburban lanes with their winding roads and walled gardens, the dockside and river scenes of the great ports of Liverpool, London, Glasgow and the fishing ports of Scarborough and Whitby. This was an age of great change when new industrial products created great wealth, an explosion of the population and the establishment of a great empire. It also meant upheaval, poverty and pollution alongside the new city centres and suburbs. It meant that the paintings of Atkinson Grimshaw could be seen as the acceptable face of contemporary life, his work presenting an atmosphere of colour and even poetry over everyday reality. The brash and new could be seen by moonlight and smoothed over by the artist’s skill. Grimshaw’s choice of moonlight enriched this emotional response to changing times as everything could be shrouded in shadow. Unlike his early landscape paintings, where every detail stood out with startling clarity, the artist’s knowledge of observation could be used in a different way. Grimshaw could also play with different light effects from the moon and its light seen through a pattern of twigs and branches, to reflected light on wet pavements from shop windows. All these different light sources brought colour to often drab surroundings. It was this love of the mysterious which no doubt attracted Grimshaw to Romantic poetry with a love of Keats, Shelley, Longfellow and especially Tennyson. Grimshaw even named several of his children after characters in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King and called his Scarborough home Castle-by-the-Sea after a Longfellow poem. His own home at Knostrop and the artistic props and bric-a-brac which he bought, helped to create an atmosphere of a different time and place.
Homeward bound
Southwark Bridge from Blackfriars
10
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 10
15/08/2011 17:32
From the early 1870s until the last year of his life in 1893, Grimshaw produced his suburban lane paintings, seemingly able to vary the colour and content at will. The subject of the pictures, often a house in a garden half hidden behind a stone wall, is seldom identifiable and it is known that the artist had architectural books which provided him with types of house from which he could select parts and blend them with others to create a kind of hybrid. On rare occasions he did paint his own home at Knostrop, but often with added parts such as in Homeward bound (cat. no.10). Nearly all these types of painting are autumnal scenes so that moonlight or the setting sun can be seen through a myriad of twigs and branches silhouetted against the sky. Different moods are also created by the overall tone of the picture; a green-grey for a cold night or a golden light for a warm comforting day. Their appeal lies in the way they draw in the viewer down the lane to explore the road and speculate on any meaning for the lonely figure. Similarly the port and dock scenes are characterised by the particular tonal range of Grimshaw’s canvases, often having a brooding mystery which has a counterpart in novels of the time. One thinks of Charles Dickens’s images of the Thames in his Night Walks: ‘But the river had an awful look, the buildings on the banks were muffled in black shrouds, and the reflected lights seemed to originate deep in the water, as if the spectres of suicides were holding them to show where they went down’; or George Gissing’s description of ‘murky, swarming, rotting London, a marvellous rendering of the impression received by any imaginative person who, in low spirits, has had occasion to wander about London’s streets.’ Perhaps closer to expressing Grimshaw’s aims in his Thames views was the artist James McNeil Whistler in his famous ‘Ten O’Clock lecture’ where he states:
London Bridge - Night
Scarborough. High water
Whitby
‘And when the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairy-land is before us….’
11
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 11
15/08/2011 17:32
Introduction by Alexander Robertson CONTINUED Southwark Bridge from Blackfriars (cat. no.27) and London Bridge - Night (cat. no.28) contain these ideas, but Grimshaw has no particular message to impart; he paints what is there, but it is the colour harmony which envelops the image whereby he transforms the hum-drum every day view into a ‘Grimshaw’. The taking of a Chelsea studio for two years in 1885-1887 helped the artist to increase his presence in the capital with exhibitions at Arthur Tooth Gallery and also at Thomas Agnew & Son, which had included his paintings in their exhibitions since the 1870s. As well as the river Thames, Grimshaw painted many of the city streets of the capital in the centre and around the outer areas of Chelsea, Hampstead and Barnes. Outside London, the appeal of other port cities and towns was just as strong. Grimshaw’s love of Scarborough on the east coast of Yorkshire is evidenced by his second home there and by the number of paintings he produced of the town and of nearby Whitby. In Scarborough. High water (cat. no.19) and Whitby (cat. no.20) the fishing ports are seen not just by moonlight, but with the artist’s transforming palette which creates a romantic glow over everything.
Liverpool
Broomielaw, Glasgow
But what became his second most important creation after the suburban lanes were Grimshaw’s dockside views. He produced seemingly endless varieties of the port side in Liverpool and Glasgow occasionally mixing them up so the same shops and buildings appear in each. The quintessential view is Liverpool (cat. no.23) where Grimshaw hit on the successful formula of a balancing bank of ship’s rigging and masts on one side and a line of buildings on the other. A similar composition occurs in Broomielaw, Glasgow (cat. no.22). All the artist’s skill and knowledge of observation is brought into play where an incredible amount of detail can be seen. Multiple light sources are used to illuminate surfaces and allow Grimshaw to play with his fascination for coloured light and its reflection in the wet cobbled streets. In 1887 Grimshaw returned to Leeds where he continued to paint his familiar subjects with no lessening of skill. Autumn gold (cat. no.13) and A golden shower (cat. no.14) are both saturated with a yellow glow and carpets of autumn leaves with a pattern of branches and twigs seen against the sky. Late works included some beach scenes and even winter snow scenes which were exhibited in spring 1893. Grimshaw died the following October, aged 57. His career had lasted just over thirty years.
12
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 12
15/08/2011 14:29
It was no small achievement for a young man from the provinces from a modest background to establish himself as an artist with some style in his home town of Leeds and to be exhibited by two leading London dealers later in his career. With no apparent formal training he made his way, supported by his wife Fanny Grimshaw, to attain the position he did and to be the friend of writers, actors and artists as famous as Du Maurier and Whistler. One obituary notice said ‘Daylight effects had little attraction for him; the details were too hard and staring; and it was the mystery of the murky air, the tender hues of the dawn, or the mellow light of the moon thrown on all beneath it, a silvery radiance, that appealed to him most deeply.’
Autumn gold (detail)
Grimshaw was undoubtedly a romantic, living in an old mansion and taking up the persona of a ‘real artist’ who looked and lived the part. But in his work he produced something unique and left a legacy of a time and places touched by his imagination. From the cool crisp paintings of his early years to the moonlit landscapes and port scenes of his mature years, he showed contemporary reality with a poetic veneer, covering harsh modernity with mysterious shadows and coloured light, changing it into a quite different reality, a unique vision which has secured Grimshaw his place in the Victorian art scene. A golden shower
Alexander Robertson Former Keeper of Leeds Art Gallery
13
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 13
05/08/2011 13:23
14
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 14
05/08/2011 13:23
The Lake District
15
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 15
05/08/2011 13:23
1
A moonlight view over Lake Windermere Signed and indistinctly dated Mixed media on card: 21 ¾ x 17 ¼ in / 55.2 x 43.8 cm Painted in 1868 Provenance
Sale, Sotheby’s, Belgravia, 22nd February 1972, lot 129 Ferrers Gallery, London Private collection, London Richard Green, London, 2007 Private collection, UK, 2007
On loan from a private collection, UK in the foreground undergrowth of the present work. The lake, landscape and incandescent sky are rendered in a more generalized atmospheric manner. This luminescent section is dramatically contrasted with the highly defined screen of branches and leaves whose texture as well as tone is heightened by the use of mixed media. Having spent most of the 1860s painting in watercolour, Grimshaw abandoned the medium at the end of the decade as well as the Pre-Raphaelite painting method and began to adopt new techniques and subjects. The use of moonlight, which first appeared in his work in 1867, assisted Grimshaw in his transformation by enabling the suppression of detail with shadow, evoking the mystery and romance which would become synonymous with his later style.
This exceptional picture documents the progression of Grimshaw’s early ‘Pre-Raphaelite’ landscape paintings towards the atmosphere and drama of his later moonlit nocturnes. Grimshaw painted several brilliantly coloured and highly detailed works set in the Lake District dating from 1863 to 1868 and journeyed there on several occasions with his wife, his earliest picture being Windermere, 1863 (Private collection). It is not clear whether the artist had visited the Lakes by 1863, but he had purchased photographs of Windermere as well as other lakes from local photographers which he kept in an album, now in the possession of Leeds City Art Gallery. The album contains several images of Windermere, Rydal Water and Ambleside which in more than one case provided Grimshaw with a compositional basis for his vibrant paintings executed in a dramatically Pre-Raphaelite manner, for example Nab Scar, 1864 (Private collection). Grimshaw’s commitment to the ‘truth to nature’ style advocated by Ruskin and demonstrated by the Pre-Raphaelites, in particular the work of John William Inchbold, involved the objective study of moss-covered rocks, grass and foliage which he found walking in the woods and making highly detailed studies to perfect his elaborate and finely wrought technique. The dazzling clarity of Grimshaw’s early time-consuming treatment can be seen to inform the extraordinary details and texture of foliage and ferns
On the Tees, near Barnard Castle, c.1868 (watercolour/ gouache on paper) Leeds Museums and Galleries (City Art Gallery) UK / The Bridgeman Art Library
16
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 16
05/08/2011 13:23
17
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 17
05/08/2011 13:23
2
The Screes, Wasdale Signed and dated 1870 Oil on canvas: 32 x 48 in / 81.3 x 122 cm Provenance
Titus Gallery Richard Green, London, 1994 Private collection, UK, 1994 Exhibited
London, Richard Green, Exhibition of Victorian & Romantic Paintings, 23rd November 1994, no. 17 Literature
Sandra Payne, Atkinson Grimshaw: Knight’s Errand, Corporate Link, Wokingham, p. 35
On loan from a private collection, UK during his lifetime, The Screes, Wasdale is listed as no. 447 in the Hollis and Webb auction sale catalogue which followed his death.
This spectacular panoramic view depicts Wastwater, in the secluded and unspoilt valley of Wasdale. The dramatic mountain range which forms a luminous backdrop to the lake includes the base of Yewbarrow, Lingmell Ridge, Scafell Pike, Scafell and the base of Wastwater Screes. A radiant, saturated glow emanates from behind the mountains, lending them a soft iridescence and suggesting the moment captured is just after dawn. The sun has not yet reached over the peaks to warm the minutely observed, lichen-covered rocks scattered about the foreground.
Unusually for this group of early Lake District views, Grimshaw has included a female figure by the water, most likely Mrs Frances Theodosia Grimshaw as in Meditation, c 1875 (private collection) The figure lends the painting an air of solitary contemplation at the awe-inspiring site of such breath-taking splendour. ‘The Lake District, where for the first time he would know the beauty and majesty, the play of sun and shadow on hills and mountains. One of his brothers who accompanied him on these visits to the Lakes told me in his old age that some lovelier effect or other, some newly unfolding view, would sometimes make my father emotionally upset, almost ill’ (Elaine Grimshaw, cited in S Payne, Atkinson Grimshaw: Knight’s Errand, Corporate Link, Wokingham, 1987, p.1).
This painting and its extraordinary setting was a favourite subject of the artist’s daughter Elaine, who recalled it in her memoir: ‘In the weeks following my father’s death I had seen for the first time an early painting of Wastwater Screes. It had to be sold, and I have never seen it since. A year or two after my marriage to the son of JSR Phillips my husband and I were camping on the marsh at Ravenglass, and walked from there to Wastwater; on its shore I found my father’s viewpoint and, seeing Earth so “crammed with Heaven”, did “take off my shoes” – with him’ (unpublished memoir by Elaine Phillips, private collection). Kept in the artist’s collection
We are grateful to Alex Morgan, National Trust, for her assistance with the cataloguing of this work. 18
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 18
05/08/2011 13:23
19
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 19
15/08/2011 14:34
20
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 20
05/08/2011 13:24
LEEDS, YORKSHIRE
21
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 21
05/08/2011 13:24
3
A mossy bank, Meanwood, Leeds Signed and dated 1861; signed, dated August 1st 1861 and inscribed with the title on the reverse Oil on board: 10 x 14 in / 25.5 x 35.5 cm Provenance
Richard Green, London, 2002 Private collection, UK, 2003 Exhibited
London, Richard Green, A Fine Collection of Nineteenth Century Paintings, 2002, no. 30 London, Richard Green, John Atkinson Grimshaw, 2003, no. 1, pp. 14-15 Literature
Alexander Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, Phaidon, London, 2000, pp. 13–20
On loan from a private collection, UK ‘Before the move to The Villas in Cliff Road, the Grimshaws used to walk from Armley across Leeds to Meanwood and Adel beyond, a distance of four or five miles. In this still largely unchanged woodland setting, Grimshaw was able to paint from nature in surroundings of peaceful solitude, and to bring back moss, ferns and plants for direct study’ (D Bromfield and A Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw 1836-1893, exhibition catalogue, Leeds City Art Gallery, The Scolar Press, Yorkshire, 1979, p. 23).
This early study by Grimshaw is a fascinating discovery and can be closely related to a number of other paintings also dated 1861, such as From nature, near Adel (Private collection ) and Newlay Wood, Horsforth, Leeds (Private collection). The earliest known paintings by Grimshaw date from this year, but no other works are known to document the exact day on which they were painted. These early pieces show the artist’s emerging talent and his attempts to capture elaborate and detailed subject matter. The gothic touch to the signature and date imitates Millais. The painstaking detail and sharp focus with which Grimshaw renders the moss-covered stones, twigs, ferns and foxgloves in this woodland scene, suggests the influence of artists such as John William Inchbold and the instruction of John Ruskin in Modern Painters, 1843, to ‘go to Nature in all singleness of heart, and walk with her laboriously and trustingly, having no other thoughts but how best to penetrate her meaning, and remember her instruction; rejecting nothing, and scorning nothing; but believing all things to be right and good, and rejoicing always in the truth’.
A mossy glen, 1864. Calderdale MBC Museums
22
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 22
15/08/2011 14:34
23
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 23
16/08/2011 21:08
4
Autumn twilight, Barden Tower Signed and dated 1870; signed, dated and inscribed with the title and Knostrop on the reverse Oil on card: 8 ¾ x 13 ¾ in / 22.2 x 35 cm Provenance
Richard Green, London, 2001 Private collection, UK, 2003 Exhibited
London, Richard Green, John Atkinson Grimshaw, 2003, no. 3, pp. 18-19
On loan from a private collection, UK picturesque ruins of Barden Tower. Grimshaw’s engagement with the elements of Romantic landscape painting shifted towards the end of the 1860s, as did the rigorous discipline of his technique. The ruins are no longer central to the composition, but just visible in silhouette above the autumnal explosion of trees, as nature reclaims the remnants of civilisation. Using a complex mixture of techniques and layering of textures, Grimshaw builds a strikingly contemporary work of atmospheric intensity framed by a detailed foreground of individuated ferns and gradations of leaves. The spontaneity of the scene, as well as the size of the card upon which it is painted, suggest that like A mossy bank (cat no. 3), it was painted outdoors in front of the motif.
Surrounded by a golden twilight haze of autumnal trees, rests Barden Tower. This ruined castle lying between Bolton Abbey and Burnsall village was originally a hunting lodge built in the fifteenth century by Henry Clifford, known as the ‘Shepherd Lord’. Within the hunting forest of Skipton Castle, Clifford rebuilt one of the hunting lodges and made it his principal residence. During the Wars of the Roses he spent his youth in the Cumbrian fells tending sheep, while hiding from the Yorkists who had killed his father and grandfather. He was restored to his estates by Henry VII, but chose to live in the more rural setting of Barden Tower. In 1658, Lady Anne Clifford restored the decaying property, making the tower a complicated blend of fifteenth and seventeenth century architecture. In the late eighteenth century, however, the tower fell into decline, leaving only the ruined shell visible in the distance of Grimshaw’s Autumn twilight. Autumn twilight presents a dramatic contrast to the classic composition and clarity of Grimshaw’s earlier treatment of the same subject in works such as Barden Tower, Yorkshire, 1868 (Chatsworth, Devonshire Collection). The Leeds born artist painted several views of the Wharfedale landscape in the previous decade, often surrounded by Bolton Woods and featuring the 24
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 24
05/08/2011 13:24
25
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 25
05/08/2011 13:24
5
Study of beeches, evening effect Signed and dated 1872-16; signed, dated and inscribed with the title and artist’s address on the reverse Oil on card: 17 x 21½ in / 43.2 x 54.6 cm Provenance
Commissioned from the artist by the owner of Gledhow Hall, Leeds, then by descent Sale, Bonhams, Knightsbridge, 24th June 1998, lot 105 Richard and Millicent Clark, USA, 1998 Richard Green, London, 2004 Private collection, UK, 2005 Exhibited
Leeds, Leeds City Art Gallery, Atkinson Grimshaw 1836-1893, 1979-80, no. 12 London, Richard Green, Nineteenth Century Paintings including a Collection of Works by Charles Spencelayh, November 2004, no. 36, p. 88-9 Literature
A. Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, Phaidon, London, 2000, p. 114, pl.91, illustrated p. 106
On loan from a private collection, UK
Photograph of Gledhow Hall Park
Four contemporary photographs of Gledhow Hall and Park accompany the painting and reveal the influence of early developments in photography in Grimshaw’s work. Trees in winter were a favourite subject for photographers as their bare branches could easily be discerned against the sky. Their lack of leaves also ensured that they would not move in the wind and blur an image developed through a lengthy exposure (See A. Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, London, 2000, p.114). The photographs would have enabled Grimshaw to represent the complexity of the silhouette and nuances of light and shade in previously unattempted detail. To this Grimshaw added his own unmistakable poetry of tone and effects such as the mist rising from the lake.
Grimshaw executed this exquisite painting in the grounds of Gledhow Hall, Leeds in 1872. Considered remarkable for its beauty, the Park and its woodland had inspired many artists, including J.M.W. Turner who made a sketch of the famous beeches in 1816. The house belonged to a number of prominent Leeds families during the nineteenth century: the Becketts, the Benyons and the Coopers all lived there before the estate was purchased by James Kitson, later Baron Airedale, in 1878. A staunch liberal, he became the first Lord Mayor of Leeds in 1896 and entertained several statesmen at Gledhow Hall, including Lord Rosebery and Prime Minister Gladstone.
26
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 26
15/08/2011 14:35
27
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 27
05/08/2011 13:24
6
In the Pleasaunce exhibition catalogue, The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate Borough Council, 2011, pp. 52, 55, 56, 88 , illustrated in colour p. 110, fig. 113
Signed and dated 1875; signed, dated and inscribed “In the Pleasaunce”. Painted by Atkinson Grimshaw/at Ye Old Hall/Knostrop Leeds 1875’ on the stretcher Oil on canvas: 18 ¾ x 30 in / 47.6 x 76.2 cm
On loan from a private collection, UK
Provenance
Sale, Christie’s, London, 15th December 1972, lot 43 Frost & Reed, London, 1972 Sale, Christie’s, London, 3rd February 1978, lot 224 Private collection, UK, 1978 Richard Green, London, 2006 Private collection, UK, 2006
In the mid 1870s Grimshaw painted a brilliant series of women in modern dress set in decorative interiors, including Summer, Spring, A Question of Colour and Dulce Domum. The setting for this group of works was the artist’s home at Knostrop Old Hall. The present painting depicts the artist’s wife sitting on a Coalbrookdale bench (Grimshaw made a note in his sketch-book ‘to paint Fanny in the garden’) and is the only surviving painting of their enclosed garden, the much loved Pleasaunce. The location of the scene is easily recognisable from the imposing pinnacled gateposts and the stone arch entrance (flanked on the other side by carved figures) visible in the background1. Also visible behind Fanny is the window of the morning room, through which a woman (possibly Fanny) gazes out at the garden in Summer, also painted in 1875 (private collection). As in Grimshaw’s fashionable, aesthetic interiors, In the Pleasaunce displays the artist’s excellent taste as well as technical skill, rendering in bright colours and exquisite detail a portrait of his beautiful wife, her stylish accessories and their garden.
Exhibited
London, Victoria & Albert Museum, The Garden, 1979 Leeds, Leeds City Art Gallery, Atkinson Grimshaw, OctoberNovember 1979, no. 26; then went on to Southampton City Art Gallery; Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery London, Richard Green, Atkinson Grimshaw 1836-1893, November 1990, no. 5 Scarborough, Scarborough Art Gallery, Atkinson Grimshaw 1836-1893, 24th April-27th June 1993, no. 14 London, Geffrye Museum, Home and Garden, September 2003-July 2004, no. 80
Behind the Italianate urns filled with red geraniums we see neatly arranged rows of bedding flowers bordering squares of immaculate lawn, including blue verbena, petunia and pelargoniums, as well as less formal, more romantic groups of lilies, poppies and daisies in the foreground. Lilies were a particular favourite of the artist and featured more prominently in his other garden scene of the 1870s, The Rector’s Garden, Queen of the Lilies, 1877 (Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston). Grimshaw’s interest in plants can also be seen from his sketchbook, which includes lists of exotic plants featured in Il Penseroso, 1875 (private collection), set in his conservatory at Castle-by-the-Sea. Surrounded by a selection of rare and expensive flowers, including orchids and Begonia Rex, the seated woman wears the same white muslin dress with mauve flowers as Fanny in the present work.
Literature
Jane Abdy, ‘Summer’, Christie’s Review of the Season, 1978, illustrated p. 77 The Guardian, 26th May 1979, p. 10 (detail) Apollo, August 1979, ‘The British Garden: a partial view’, Kenneth Woodbridge, p. 149 illustrated A Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, Phaidon, London, 2000, p. 39, illustrated pl. 44 C Wood and P Hobhouse, Painted Gardens: English Watercolours 1850-1914, 2000, p. 40, illustrates pl. 24 D Dewing (ed.), Home and Garden, exhibition catalogue, London, Geffrye Museum, 2003, no. 80, pp. 184-5, illustrated p. 185 Jane Sellars (ed.), Atkinson Grimshaw: Painter of Moonlight, 28
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 28
15/08/2011 19:20
29
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 29
05/08/2011 13:24
In the Pleasaunce (continued) Fanny’s costume is as colourful and closely observed as the garden. As Edwina Ehrman illuminatingly describes in her recent essay on Grimshaw’s artistic interiors, she wears a ‘quilted silk petticoat paired with the muslin dress depicted in Il Penseroso. The petticoat’s amber colour and the small scale of the all-over diamond pattern single it out as nineteenth century, but the fashion for wearing quilted petticoats in the previous century, which was flagged up by the Dolly Varden craze, may explain why the artist used it for a painting whose title evoked the past. Quilted petticoats, like the Japanese parasol shading the model’s head, were also considered aesthetic being practical, attractive garments with a historical pedigree’, (Atkinson Grimshaw: Painter of Moonlight, exhibition catalogue, The Mercer Art Gallery, 2011, p. 110). The parasol is also depicted upturned in the foreground of Spring (private collection) of the same year. James Tissot (1836-1902), who also set his fashionable figure paintings in his garden at St John’s Wood, frequently used Japanese accessories in his works, including Young women looking at Japanese articles, 1869 (Cincinnati Art Museum). 1
A photograph of the slightly overgrown garden in the Pleasaunce dating c.1890 is in the collection of Leeds Library.
The Rector’s Garden, Queen of the Lilies, 1877 Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, Lancashire, UK / The Bridgeman Art Library
30
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 30
15/08/2011 14:46
31
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 31
05/08/2011 13:24
7
A windy night [Gorse under moonlight] Signed and dated 1877; signed, dated and inscribed with the title on the reverse Oil on board: 8 ½ x 11 ¼ in / 21.5 x 28.5 cm Provenance
Private collection, UK Richard Green, London, 1998 Private collection, UK, 2003 Exhibited
London, Richard Green, John Atkinson Grimshaw, 2003, no. 5, pp. 22-23
On loan from a private collection, UK This work was most likely painted around Forge Valley, a quiet wooded gorge near Scarborough and is closely related to another work of this period entitled Eveleigh, Forge Valley. During the second half of the 1870s Grimshaw rented a house in Scarborough which he called ‘Castle-by-the-Sea’. The years spent in Scarborough from 1876 to 1879 were very successful for Grimshaw, providing a unique subject in the town itself, as well as its surrounding countrysidewhich he visited in his coach and pair. In A windy night [Gorse under moonlight], the artist combines one of his most popular town subjects, a lone figure walking down a lane, with a country landscape. The scene is saturated in moonlight for an instant as the dense clouds scudding across the sky momentarily break revealing a ghost-like, solitary figure walking into a receding forest of fir trees, her skirt and shawl rippling in the wind. Another slightly larger view of the same location and date exists, entitled The trysting gate (private collection). Perhaps the present work was painted later the same year as the patch of gorse has been cut back and a number of trees felled on the right hand side of the forest. The same light track curves behind the patch of flowering gorse. However, the gate is open in the larger work and there is no visible figure to close it. 32
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 32
05/08/2011 13:24
33
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 33
16/08/2011 21:08
8
Roundhay Lake Signed and dated 1877; signed, dated and inscribed with the title on the reverse Oil on board: 9 x 17 in / 22.9 x 43.2 cm Provenance
Private collection, UK Richard Green, London, 1993 Private collection, UK, 1993 Richard Green, London Exhibited
London, Richard Green, Nineteenth Century Paintings, 2008, no. 24, pp. 68-69, illustrated in colour
Richard Green Gallery, for sale In 1871 a family death and inheritance dispute led to the Court of Chancery issuing a decree empowering lawyers to sell the park, which was bought the same year by Sir John Barran, Mayor of Leeds, for the city’s people. On 20th September 1872 Prince Arthur officially opened Roundhay Estate as a public park. Grimshaw painted several views of Roundhay, initially because its new status was in contention. As the park was outside the borough boundaries, an Act of Parliament was necessary for the Corporation of Leeds to purchase the estate. On 19th April 1872, The Leeds Mercury described a commission given to Grimshaw to paint three views of the park to illustrate its splendour and extent to the Parliamentary committee in support of the Leeds Improvement Bill. These views were, interestingly, night scenes, and as the present work attest, Grimshaw remained deeply interested in this location and its moonlit appearance throughout his career. The setting inspired him to produce some of his most sensitive and poetic paintings.
Roundhay Park, three miles north of the centre of Leeds, is one of the biggest city parks in Europe, encompassing over seven hundred acres of rolling parkland, lakes, woodland and gardens. Roundhay was originally a medieval hunting park granted to Ilbert De Lacy by William the Conqueror in return for his loyal support during his military campaigns (see S. Burt, An Illustrated History of Roundhay Park, Steven Burt, Leeds, 2000, p.3). At the start of the nineteenth century, the estate was purchased by shipping magnate and stockbroker, Thomas Nicholson, who developed the natural features of the park into an impressive country estate complete with ravine, gorge, top lake, landscaped gardens, woodland walkways and waterfalls. In 1881 he commissioned John Clarke to design a mansion, completed in 1826 in Greek Revival style. The mock castle, known as a folly, was built in 1812 by George Nettleton in the form of a medieval gateway (Grimshaw also painted the park from the ivy-covered battlements, using the Romantic association of the ruins to inspire a meditation on the past). Perhaps the most impressive feature was the thirty-three acre lower lake constructed in two years by soldiers who had returned from the recent Napoleonic wars, appropriately named ‘Waterloo Lake’.
We are grateful to Shaun Gregory and the Friends of Roundhay Park, for their assistance with the cataloguing of this work.
34
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 34
05/08/2011 13:24
35
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 35
16/08/2011 21:08
9
Stapleton Park, Pontefract Signed and dated 1882 Oil on card: 9 x 14 in / 22.9 x 35.6 cm Provenance
1st Viscount Mackintosh of Halifax, then by descent Richard Green, London, 2000 Private collection, USA, 2001 Richard Green, London
Richard Green Gallery, for sale Stapleton Park is situated four and a half miles from Pontefract, in the parish of Darrington. The park is large and beautiful, watered by a stream that runs into the River Went and bounded by an expanded range of distant hills. Grimshaw painted several views of Stapleton Park in Yorkshire on different surfaces and in different seasons. Though in composition and subject matter this work is very similar to Grimshaw’s moonlit pictures of suburban roads and houses, the mood and colouring are quite different. In Stapleton Park, Pontefract, Grimshaw achieves a poetic mood of nostalgia, in the wet roads full of fallen leaves, illuminated by the rich golden rays of the setting sun. To further enhance the remembrance of days gone by, he has included a figure in eighteenth century costume, a device used by many Victorian painters and novelists to evoke a happier, golden age.
Stapleton Park, Pontefract, 1877 (Graphite, charcoal, gouache on paper) Š Leeds Museums and Galleries. All Rights Reserved 2011
We are grateful to Theodore Wilkins, Assistant Curator, Leeds Art Gallery, for his assistance with the cataloguing of this work.
The warm tonality of this work is particularly pleasing, the earthy brown and red tints of the trees, fallen leaves and wall contrasting the lush greens of the field grasses. Though the branches are now rendered with a calligraphic economy of line, they still possess some individuated leaves of light green, orange and brown, recalling the finely observed detail of his earliest woodland works such as Meanwood, Leeds. Grimshaw began painting this view in the late 1870s, often with a hay loaded horse and cart up the road. A preparatory drawing for the composition exisits in the collection of Leeds Art Gallery.
36
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 36
15/08/2011 19:22
37
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 37
05/08/2011 13:24
10
Homeward bound Signed Oil on board: 21 ¾ x 17 ¼ in / 55.2 x 43.8 cm Provenance
Arthur Jefferies Gallery, London M.A. Dunne Richard Green, London, 2009 Private collection, UK, 2009
On loan from a private collection, UK Though it was often the inspiration for fantastical composite buildings in Grimshaw’s lane scenes, Homeward bound features a very realistic representation of Knostrop Old Hall, his home for twenty-three years from 1870 until his death in 1893 at the age of 57. The move from Cliff Road, Woodhouse to the village of Knowsthorpe two miles east of the centre of Leeds, signified the artist’s success and standing as an important local figure. A seventeenth century manor house on the Temple Newsam estate near Leeds, Knostrop was once the home of Adam Baynes, MP for Leeds during the Commonwealth. It was sadly demolished in the 1960s, but photos in the collection of Leeds Library and a reference in Louis Ambler’s The Old Halls and Manor Houses of Yorkshire, 1913, reveal it to have been a grand house with remarkable architectural features. The striking gate piers with stone seats beneath are not visible, but the central porch with balustrade can be seen on the left, as well as the archway on the right which led to the Pleasaunce.
Photograph of Knostrop Old Hall, entrance. By kind permission of Leeds Library & Information Services, www.leodis.net
The light from the full moon is exceptionally bright no doubt to highlight the unusual details of the artist’s home, centralised behind the wide lane. The reflected light from the road also draws our attention to the figure of an elderly woman walking with a cane, homeward bound.
38
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 38
05/08/2011 13:24
39
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 39
16/08/2011 21:08
40
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 40
05/08/2011 13:24
LANE SCENES
41
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 41
05/08/2011 13:24
11
The Rookery Signed and dated 1883; signed, dated and inscribed with the title on the reverse Oil on canvas: 24 ¼ x 42 in / 61.6 x 106.7 cm Provenance
Private collection, USA
Richard Green Gallery, for sale Grimshaw was fascinated by the stately mansions of Victorian Leeds, a golden age of architecture. ‘The mid-nineteenth century was a period of architectural distinction in Leeds; Norman Shaw and Pugin both built houses there, and their imaginative work was an inspiration for local architects. The most important of these was a Scot, George Corson, whose style was various and inventive. He designed important civic buildings in Park Row, and the Grand Theatre, which was built in a romantic Gothic mood with pinnacles. His domestic architecture in Meanwood and Headingly was in his own rich version of mediaeval or Renaissance style’ (Derek Linstrum, Atkinson Grimshaw 1836-1893, The Ferrers Gallery, London, 1970, p. 42).
From the late 1870s onwards, Grimshaw painted a series of deserted, semi-rural suburban streets in Yorkshire and London. These images of a solitary female figure making her way down a leaf-and puddle-strewn road, are perhaps the most emotive and emblematic of the artist, who was unrivalled in his depiction of evening twilight. The title of the present work, inscribed upon the reverse, refers to the tree-top colony of rooks, a group of which are leaving or returning to their nests observed by a female figure. The delicate tracery of interlacing branches and their leaves are rendered in exquisite autumnal shades of red, green and brown, echoing the tones of the house, surrounding fields and distant woods. Touches of yellow in the trees and golden leaves lying on the russet-coloured road recall the setting sun unseen. Though the fallen leaves and almost bare branches suggest the season is autumn, the beautiful pale blue sky is atypical of the artist’s characteristically golden scenes. The Rookery could also refer to a particular mansion as the large Queen Anne style, red brick house is rather distinctive. A similar building with seven bays and three storeys, an attic punctuated by dormer windows behind the parapet, as well as rusticated stone gate piers with moulded caps and ball finials, can be seen in Grimshaw’s The waning glory of the year, 1882 (private collection).
42
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 42
05/08/2011 13:24
43
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 43
05/08/2011 13:24
12
An autumnal lane at sunset Signed and dated 1883 Oil on board: 12 x 20 in / 30.5 x 51 cm Provenance
W. S. Theaker, Esq. Richard Green, London, 1968 Private collection, UK, 1970 Richard Green, London, 1998 Private collection, UK, 1999
On loan from a private collection, UK Grimshaw’s golden twilight scenes possess the same poetic nostalgia as his moonlight paintings and demonstrate his mastery of light in general. Using the same focal points and compositional elements, he experimented with subtle gradations of tone and colour to create a harmonious whole. The figure in this work is unusual, however, in walking towards the viewer rather than into the scene. She is also bare-headed rather than mob-capped. The mansion is also remarkable. A stone built house in a Tudor/Jacobean manner, the wing to the street is of jettied timber construction while the rear wing is of stone with ornate Dutch gables, ball and spear finial and elaborate brick chimneys. David Bromfield suggested that Grimshaw took some architectural details from a copy of Robinson’s Vitruvius Britanicus of 1833 (listed amongst his possessions at his death) to create his extraordinary, sometimes eclectic, constructions (Atkinson Grimshaw 1836-1893, exh cat., Leeds City Art Gallery, The Scolar Press, Ikley, p.18). However, Derek Linstrum writes that the new surburban houses built for Victorian industrialists in Leeds were in reality often ‘a riotous combination of bays, gables, pierced parapets, enormous chimneystacks and gargolyes’ (West Yorkshire: Architects and Architecture, Lund Humphries, London, 1978, p. 116).
During the nineteenth century, the northern cities of England expanded with industrialisation, and new leafy suburbs developed as the wealthy industrialists began to build their own private homes, sheltered from the street by high walls and tall trees. The home was of paramount importance to Victorian society, a haven of family values, shelter and security. Grimshaw himself believed in the sanctity of marriage and family, and, despite financial hardships, enjoyed a secure relationship with his wife and was a loving father to their children. His lane scenes were made more appealing for their aesthetic embellishment of the Industrial Revolution era, as the deserted streets bore no relation to the environment of the labour-intensive factories or the back-to-back terrace housing provided for their workers.
44
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 44
05/08/2011 13:24
45
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 45
05/08/2011 13:24
13
Autumn gold Signed and dated 1888; signed and inscribed with the title on the reverse Oil on canvas: 30 x 25 in / 76.2 x 63.5 cm Provenance
Private collection, UK Richard Green, London
Richard Green Gallery, for sale This charming architectural fantasy employs a golden twilight tonality to great effect. The wide, muddy road bordered on both sides by high walls and tall, bare trees, is empty. On the left beyond the wall and the dark, vertical silhouettes of the trees, is an impressive three-storey, Georgian house of red brick. The quality of light in this painting is exquisite, the pale yellow of the sky and rich, warm earth tones of the house, walls and road combine to create a beautifully balanced composition suffused with a golden glow. The furrowed, leaf-strewn ground is painted with incredible detail and palpable texture. The figure of the maid-servant carrying a basket to the right is much more defined than some of Grimshaw’s solitary females. Jane Abdy described the mob-cap and shawl, a revival of an eighteenth century style, as ‘a mode of dress common in Yorkshire… still traditional in the village of Staithes’ (Atkinson Grimshaw 1836-1893, exh cat., The Ferrers Gallery, London, 1970, p.38). Grimshaw also painted women wearing the same mob cap in two interiors, The Chorale, 1878 (private collection) and Dulce Domum, 1885 (private collection).
An autumn idyll, 1885 © Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, UK / The Bridgeman Art Library
46
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 46
05/08/2011 13:24
47
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 47
05/08/2011 13:24
14
A golden shower Signed; signed and inscribed with the title on the reverse Oil on canvas: 12 x 18 in / 30.5 x 46 cm Provenance
Richard Green, London, 1997 Private collection, USA, 1997 Richard Green, London
Richard Green Gallery, for sale The figure stands next to a gap in the wall gazing towards the saturated sunset which defines her form with a halo-like glow and leaves a sharp trail of molten gold leaves across the road and pavement. The intensity of the fading sunlight emanating from the horizon has generated a heat haze which obscures the details of the further gateposts and the distant house at the bend in the road. In the foreground the naturalistically modelled branches have been dipped in green and gold, the strength of the sunlight casting a camouflage shadow pattern of their contours on the fence and walls.
Evening glow, c. 1884 (oil on canvas). Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, USA / The Bridgeman Art Library
The large mansion on the left, veiled by trees and the failing light, seems to possess several features belonging to Knostrop Old Hall, including the central porch with balustrade. The artist’s combination of archaising architectural elements with an evocative twilight tonality seems to reflect the passage of time and induce a contemplation of the past. ‘For Grimshaw, living in a real Jacobean manor house, it would seem that past and present were equally real; just as myth and legend were to be plundered for subjects, so actual and historical houses could be put together to form an archetypal mansion… Most of Grimshaw’s suburban lanes tantalize the spectator by looking very familiar and yet are quite unidentifiable’ (A. Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, Phaidon, London, 2000, p. 95).
48
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 48
05/08/2011 13:24
49
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 49
05/08/2011 13:24
15
A moonlit country road Signed and dated 1877 Oil on board: 21 ¾ x 17 ¾ in / 55.5 x 45 cm Provenance
Richard Green, London, 1995 Private collection, USA, 1995 Richard Green, London
Richard Green Gallery, for sale Although executed in an unusually vertical format, it is likely that the location for the present work is the village of Bonchurch, near Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, also represented in catalogue no.17. The delicate beauty of this familiar composition is heightened by its theatrical construction, layering scenery in a sequence of aerial perspective and dramatic lighting. The dark silhouette of the foreground tree and its framing branches cutting through the full moon upon a pale green sky, recalls the conventions of Japanese print making, which had such an impact on the Aesthetic movement. The fence around it and the wall on the other side of the road are of an equally dark tonality. In the mid-ground a pair of fawn-coloured, virtually symmetrical trees form a beautiful, almost art-nouveau design, in turn framing the brightly illuminated path towards the horizon. The road, imprinted with various cart tracks in the foreground, reflects the light even more vividly than the pond. Two shadowy figures on the roadside offer a hint of narrative. Is this a chance encounter or carefully planned moonlit tryst? The painting closely resembles The Gossips, Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, 1880 (private collection). Contemporaries no doubt appreciated the romantic glow which the artist imparted to such subjects and could not be unaware of poetic resonances close to Tennyson, Shelley, Keats or Longfellow – poets dear to Grimshaw’s heart. We are grateful to Professor McInnes and Fay Brown, Ventnor History Society, for their assistance with the cataloguing of this work.
50
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 50
15/08/2011 14:57
51
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 51
05/08/2011 13:24
16
November Signed and dated 1879; signed, dated and inscribed with the title on the reverse Oil on canvas: 30 x 25 in / 76.2 x 63.5 cm Provenance
Private collection, UK Richard Green, London, 2003 Benjamin F Edwards III, USA Richard Green, London Exhibited
London, Richard Green, John Atkinson Grimshaw, 2003, no. 7, pp. 28-29
Richard Green Gallery, for sale The small house, The climbing street, the mill, the leafy lanes, The peacock-yewtree and the lonely Hall, The horse he drove, the boat he sold, the chill November dawns and dewy-glooming downs, The gentle shower, the smell of dying leaves...
During the 1870s, Grimshaw became famous for his sombre nocturnal scenes of suburban lanes with leafless trees silhouetted against the moonlit sky. In this painting the artist displays his careful study of cloud formations and their effect on the quality of moonlight. In his celebrated work Modern Painters, John Ruskin applauded Turner’s attention to the atmospheric effects of cirrus clouds, evoking both ‘the serenity of sky and intensity of light’. Absorbing these important principles, Grimshaw developed the moonlit scenes which were to become synonymous with his name. The full moon shines brightly on the winter street, illuminating the solitary figure who gazes across the road at the grand mansion which emanates a warm, hospitable glow, seeming to exemplify the lines of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem Enoch Arden:
52
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 52
05/08/2011 13:24
53
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 53
16/08/2011 21:08
17
Bonchurch, Isle of Wight Signed and dated 1880 Oil on card: 12 ¼ x 18 in / 31 x 45.7 cm Provenance
Richard Green, London, 1985 Private collection, UK, 1987 Richard Green, London, 2006 Private collection, UK, 2007
On loan from a private collection, UK It is not known if Grimshaw visited the Isle of Wight (Jane Abdy suggests he went to the island in 1880). It has been suggested that the artist based his depiction of the popular village street on a photograph or perhaps a postcard, as is the case with several of his Lake District scenes.
This atmospheric moonlit scene depicts Bonchurch Village Road, next to Bonchurch pond, on the Isle of Wight. The village of Bonchurch was extremely popular during the nineteenth century with artists, poets and writers. Charles Dickens stayed at the Winterbourne Hotel, at the end of Bonchurch Village Road, in 1849 and whilst there wrote two drafts of David Copperfield. Algernon Swinburne and his family moved to Bonchurch shortly after his birth in 1837. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, but returned to the Island in 1863 and was buried at Bonchurch in 1909. The photographer Julia Margaret Cameron moved to the Isle of Wight in 1860 when she bought Dimbola in Freshwater. She was given her first camera three years later and shortly afterwards began to win international awards and hold exhibitions. Alfred, Lord Tennyson moved to Farringford House in Freshwater in 1853. During his time there he wrote many of his most famous works, including The Charge of the Light Brigade and Maud. Grimshaw was awestruck by Tennyson’s work and frequently tried and succeeded to visualise not only his literary heroes and heroines, but also the evocation of nostalgic twilight in his poetry. The artist went on to name five of his children after characters in Tennyson’s Idylls of the King: Gertrude, Enid, Arthur, Lancelot and Elaine.
54
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 54
05/08/2011 13:24
55
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 55
05/08/2011 13:24
18
The trysting tree Signed and dated 1881; signed, dated and inscribed with the title on the back board Oil on card: 14 x 17 ¾ in / 35.5 x 45 cm Provenance
Shepparton Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia Richard Green, London
Richard Green Gallery, for sale The trysting tree is a consummate display of the artist’s extraordinary ability to create atmosphere with the teal-tinted clouds, the leafless, autumnal trees and the rain-soaked street acting in perfect harmony. The light source from the high, full moon creates an intricate and extensive pattern of reflection on the wet road. The horses and carts, which have left their impressions in the damp soil of the road, have long since departed and the gateways have been closed to the outside world.
Silver moonlight, 1880 (oil on canvas). © Harrogate Museums and Arts, North Yorkshire, UK / The Bridgeman Art Library
The elements of nature are equalled by the meticulous treatment of the architecture in this wealthy suburb. Grimshaw juxtaposes natural light with artificial light as our gaze is drawn to the glow from the surrounding houses. This focuses our attention on the human element of the work; the female figure, so often solitary in Grimshaw’s work, is joined by that of a man producing a tantalising, but subtle suggestion of romance. The sense of mystery is further enhanced by the anonymity of the scene with the exact location withheld.
56
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 56
05/08/2011 13:24
57
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 57
05/08/2011 13:25
58
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 58
05/08/2011 13:25
Dock scenes
59
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 59
05/08/2011 13:25
19
Scarborough. High water Signed and dated 1883; signed, dated and inscribed with the title on the reverse Oil on canvas: 20 x 30 in / 50.8 x 76.2 cm Provenance
Private collection, USA Richard Green, London, 1989 Private collection, UK, 1990 Richard Green, London, 2003 Private collection, UK, 2003 Exhibited
London, Richard Green, Atkinson Grimshaw 1836-1893, 1990, no. 13 London, Richard Green, John Atkinson Grimshaw, 2003, no. 21, pp. 62-63
On loan from a private collection, UK To the left of the church is a terrace of large Georgian town houses that runs the length of Castle Road until it is bisected by Tollergate. A sketchbook with various views of Scarborough, including a drawing of the skyline c.1877 is in the collection of Leeds City Art Galleries.
Having attained considerable success in 1876, Grimshaw rented a property in Scarborough owned by his most important local patron, Thomas Jarvis. Perched on top of the cliff under the castle walls, his ‘Castle-by-the-Sea’ seems to have been designed to fit the artist’s requirements or was perhaps altered by him to incorporate a studio and large conservatory. The move to Scarborough may have been due to concern for the health of his growing family (three children died from diphtheria at Knostrop), and his twins Lancelot and Elaine were born there in 1877. In 1880, Grimshaw had to give up his house in Scarborough due to financial difficulties. However, he continued to paint pictures there and at Whitby right up to the end of his life.
We are grateful to Karen Snowden, Head of Collections at Scarborough Museums Trust, for her assistance with the cataloguing of this work.
The view of the present work is taken from West Pier looking towards South Bay harbour cloaked in mist, with the striking silhouette of Scarborough’s headland above. Between the castle ruins on the right and St Mary’s church in the centre, Grimshaw has included the crenelated roof of his rented home, although this is artistic licence and would not have been visible from the harbour.
Nightfall in Scarborough Harbour, 1884 (oil on canvas). Leeds Museums and Galleries (City Art Gallery) UK / The Bridgeman Art Library
60
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 60
05/08/2011 13:25
61
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 61
05/08/2011 13:25
20
Whitby Signed and dated 1883; signed, dated and inscribed with the title and a small drawing on the reverse Oil on canvas: 20 x 30 in / 50.8 x 76.2 cm Provenance
Richard Green, London, 1995 Private collection, USA, 1995 Richard Green, London, 1999 Private collection, UK, 1999 Richard Green, London
Richard Green Gallery, for sale Looking south from Pier Road, the present work shows Whitby’s first swing bridge (1835-1909) with the gas-lit windows of commercial premises running along St Anne’s Staith on the right. Grimshaw employed this viewpoint, emphasizing the elegant curve of the harbour following the river Esk, in several works from the 1860s onwards, amongst them Whitby Harbour by moonlight, 1867 (private collection), one of the artist’s first known moonlit scenes. The artist’s compositional and technical development since that early work is considerable. The starkly lit, harsh lines of the harbour and railing, as well as the high viewpoint, have gone. The lurid viridian sky has been tamed, his cloud studies perfected.
Fishing became the principal maritime industry in Whitby following the slump in shipbuilding at the end of the Napoleonic War in 1815, as the harbour was too small to accommodate the larger ships then being built. The railway brought tourism to Whitby, and like Scarborough it became a seaside resort, inspiring writers such as Elizabeth Gaskell, Lewis Caroll and, most famously, Bram Stoker. Whitby was also well-known as a centre for the manufacture of jet jewellery in England, enormously popular in the nineteenth century with the advent of a much more elaborate mourning ritual.
As in Baiting the lines, Whitby, 1884 (Wakefield Art Gallery and Museums), painted a year after the present work, Grimshaw draws us into the scene with the curving balustrade which prefigures and leads towards the bridge, draped with ropes instead of drying fishing nets. The shadowy silhouettes of boats and masts echo the horizontal and vertical elements of the composition.
62
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 62
05/08/2011 13:25
63
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 63
15/08/2011 17:32
21
Greenock shipping Signed and dated 1881; signed, dated and inscribed with the title on the reverse Oil on canvas: 19 x 30 in / 48.2 x 76.2 cm Provenance
Richard Green, London, 1994 Private collection, London, 1994
Private collection, for sale ‘Grimshaw was a pioneer of the depiction of the modern woman. In his best known works – his views of Leeds, London, Hull, Glasgow, Scarborough and Whitby – the single female figure appears over and again…more often than not she is a workingclass girl striding confidently across Leeds Bridge, or she is the independent woman in her smart black clothes, carrying her umbrella, making her way purposefully through the crowds. Or she is the most famous of all Grimshaw’s women: the girl who walks along a stone-walled lane towards the lights of a big old house, lit by the beams of the silver moonlight’ (Jane Sellars, ‘The Girl with the Umbrella’, Atkinson Grimshaw: Painter of Moonlight, exh. cat., The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate Borough Council, 2011, p. 69).
Greenock, near Glasgow in the Strathclyde region of the Firth of Clyde, was world renowned for its shipbuilding, developing quickly from a fishing village into a port in the seventeenth century. Following the Treaty of Union in 1707, Greenock prospered from trade with the Americas, in particular the import of sugar from the Caribbean which was then processed in Greenock’s fourteen refineries. Its first harbour was built by 1710 and the following year saw the establishment of Scott’s, the first major shipbuilders on the Clyde. The port was further developed in the mid-nineteenth century by Scottish civil engineer John Rennie (who also designed the Southwark and London Bridges, both painted by Grimshaw). The elegant silhouettes of the high masted schooners attest to the region’s main industry, however Grimshaw captures the port in one of its quieter moments as night has fallen and the gas lamps are lit. Pedestrians with umbrellas gaze into bright shop windows on their way home, recalling the heroine of Mrs Gaskell’s, Mary Barton: ‘It is a pretty sight to walk through a street with lighted shops; the gas is so brilliant, the display of goods so much more vivid shown than by day’. Standing on the edge of the wet pavement before a wide curving road, the figure of a woman in a stylish black dress looks towards the harbour lost in thought. It is likely that this recurring figure was a representation of Agnes Leefe, an actress from the Leeds Grand Theatre who became Grimshaw’s live-in studio assistant and model from the early 1880s.
64
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 64
05/08/2011 13:25
65
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 65
16/08/2011 21:08
22
Broomielaw, Glasgow Signed and dated 1886; signed, dated and inscribed with the title on the reverse Oil on canvas: 24 ½ x 36 in / 62.2 x 91.4 cm Provenance
Outhwaite & Litherland, Liverpool Richard Green, London, 1974 J. Murphy, 1974 Richard Green, London, 1979 Patrick Mackie, 1980 Richard Green, London, 1985 Private collection, 1985 Richard Green, London
Richard Green Gallery, for sale validate their own profession. Confirming the artist’s love of maritime scenes, Grimshaw’s dock views may have been influenced by J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) and Whistler (1834-1903), who accredited the invention of nocturnes to Grimshaw. Bromielaw contains all the characteristics of a successful Grimshaw nocturne; the flickering street lights which highlight wet patches of pavement, a single coach travelling down the cobbled street and the black lines of ships’ masts silhouetted against the night sky.
Named after Brumelaw Croft, a stretch of land on the north bank of the Clyde, the street known as the Broomielaw extends from Jamaica Bridge to Finnieston Quay. Walter Gibson financed the building of Glasgow’s first quay at the Broomielaw in 1688 which was gradually extended and deepened as a result of the expanding tobacco and sugar trades. In the mid-nineteenth century Thomas Telford redesigned the Broomielaw quays to allow foreign trading vessels to dock.
We are grateful to Tracy Hawkins, Collections Research Assistant, Glasgow Museums, for her assistance with the cataloguing of this work.
After Liverpool, Glasgow was the most popular setting for Grimshaw’s nocturnal dock scenes. From 1870 onwards the demand for his moonlight representations of northern industrial towns rapidly increased as the new middle-class industrialists sought to become patrons of contemporary art and simultaneously
66
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 66
05/08/2011 13:25
67
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 67
05/08/2011 13:25
23
Liverpool Signed; signed and inscribed with the title on the reverse Oil on canvas: 24 x 36 in / 61 x 91.5 cm Provenance
Richard Green, London, 1994 Private collection, UK, 1994
On loan from a private collection, UK
This magnificent dock scene is a representation of Salthouse Dock, looking south along Strand Street. Originally known as South Dock, it was later renamed in the 1780s due to the proliferation of docks and its proximity to John Blackburne’s salt works in Salthouse Lane. The large classical portico supported by columns on the left hand side of the street is the Customs House, designed by John Foster and built between 1828-39 on the site of the Old Dock. Damaged by fire bombs during the Second World War, the shell of this historic building was later controversially demolished. The structures on the right are some of the quayside transit sheds that were found all through the dock estate.
Grimshaw exhibited another version of this setting entitled Salthouse Dock, Liverpool at the Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy in 1885 (no. 575). The review in The Art Journal commended the painting for its clever lighting effects seen in the ‘wet dark streets along which the gas lamps are dimly flickering, and the tall masts of the shipping just visible against the cloud-driven sky, there is a feeling which invests the subject with something akin to poetry’ (The Art Journal, July 1885, pp. 225-226). We are grateful to Ian Murphy, Curator of Maritime History and John Winrow, Assistant Curator at the National Museums Liverpool, for their assistance with the cataloguing of this work.
At this period Liverpool was one of the great ports of Victorian Britain, embodying trade and overseas expansion. The appeal of this painting to collectors of the day was not just the contemporary element of trade, but the transformation of a probably drab and dirty street into a painting of mysterious depths where everything is enfolded by a blanket of twilight gloom. Liverpool Quay by moonlight, 1887 © Tate, London 2011
68
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 68
15/08/2011 15:01
69
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 69
16/08/2011 21:08
70
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 70
05/08/2011 13:25
LONDON
71
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 71
05/08/2011 13:25
24
Heath Street, Hampstead Signed and dated 1882 Oil on board: 12 x 20 in / 30.5 x 50.8 cm Provenance
Private collection, UK Richard Green, London, 1999 Private collection, UK, 2001 Richard Green, London, 2006 Private collection, UK, 2006 Exhibited
London, Richard Green, Nineteenth Century Paintings, 15th November 2000, no. 40
On loan from a private collection, UK called Christopher Katt, met for twenty years in the homes of its founders Jacob Tonson and Katt and at the Upper Flask Tavern. Its members included the leading figures of artistic and Whig circles in eighteenth century London, including the Duke of Marlborough, Sir Robert Walpole, Vanbrugh, Addison, Steele, the playwright Congreve and the painter Kneller. Richardson set his famous novel Clarissa Harlowe in the Upper Flask Tavern. Other famous landmarks include the Drill Hall where, when renamed as the Everyman Theatre, Noel Coward first performed Vortex in 1919.
Heath Street in Hampstead was the inspiration for a series of paintings, six versions of which are currently known. The most famous at Tate Britain, View of Heath Street by night, also dated 1882, strongly resembles the present work. This series dates precisely to the moment when Grimshaw took his studio in Manresa Road, Chelsea, allowing him more immediate access to London motifs. Throughout the 1880s, he was moved by London’s streets and the Thames docks and bridges. The growing fashionableness of a Heath Street address would have made Grimshaw’s paintings an ideal acquisition for a Victorian middle-class collector. The upper part of Heath Street was one of the original lanes leading into the village of Hampstead. In the Queen Anne period it was extended through the village onto the Heath and beyond. Heath Street was lengthened in the 1887 to 1889 Hampstead Town Improvements to link it with the new Fitzjohn’s Avenue. To achieve this rationalisation, the maze of tiny alleys and courtyards of Church Row was levelled and then reconstructed. Heath Street was home to a famous literary meeting place, the Upper Flask Tavern. The famous Kit Kat Club, named after a pastry cook
Going home at dusk, 1882 (oil on board). Department of the Environment, London, UK / The Bridgeman Art Library
72
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 72
15/08/2011 19:25
73
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 73
16/08/2011 21:08
25
On the Thames, Barnes Signed and dated 1886; signed, dated and inscribed with the title on the reverse Oil on canvas: 24 ¼ x 36 ¼ in / 61.5 x 92 cm Provenance
Private collection, UK Richard Green, London, 1978 Private collection, UK, 1980 Richard Green, London, 1996 Private collection, UK, 1996 Exhibited
London, Richard Green, The Victorian Scene, 1978, no. 34, p. 77 London, Richard Green, John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1998, no. 28 Literature
Alexander Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, Phaidon, London, 2000, illustrated no. 105, p. 119 Jane Sellars (ed.), Atkinson Grimshaw: Painter of Moonlight, exh. cat., The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate Borough Council, 2011, p. 84
On loan from a private collection, UK Barnes was an area of London which particularly captured Grimshaw’s imagination, combining elegant, tree-lined streets with a scenic view of the Thames. Accessible only by river or by foot, Barnes was one of the last villages on the outskirts of the capital to remain largely untouched until the nineteenth century. Its picturesque, rural character remains to this day. Grimshaw executed numerous drawings of the riverside, working out the subtleties of colour notes and atmospheric effects, including a rare preliminary sketch for the present work dated September 1886. In the transition from drawing to finished painting, the artist has tightened the composition, straightened the Terrace and stripped the trees of their leaves.
Thames at Barnes, 1886 (pencil and charcoal on paper). Leeds Museums and Galleries (City Art Gallery) UK / The Bridgeman Art Library
74
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 74
15/08/2011 15:04
75
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 75
16/08/2011 21:08
26
Old Chelsea Signed, signed and inscribed with title on the reverse Oil on canvas: 30 x 25 in / 76.2 x 63.5 cm Provenance
Private collection, UK Richard Green, London, 1998 Private collection, USA, 1998 Richard Green, London, 2004 Private collection, UK, 2005
On loan from a private collection, UK and a girl to a one-legged Chelsea pensioner, the location is exactly the same. ‘Grimshaw perhaps made this late painting in a mood of wistful reflection on his time in London, a period in his career when his ambition, as well as financial need, gave him the determination to leave the familiarity of his home city of Leeds and take his chances in the great metropolis’ (‘Atkinson Grimshaw in London’ by M Bills, Atkinson Grimshaw: Painter of Moonlight, J Sellars (ed.), exh. cat., The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, 2011, p.85).
In this charming scene, Grimshaw portrays Chelsea Old Church from Cheyne Row, looking westwards along Lordship Place. Chelsea inspired Grimshaw several times in the 1880s when he first began visiting the capital. Though the artist stayed at Anderton’s Hotel, 162-164 Fleet Street, while in London, his rented studio was located in nearby Manresa Road, not far from that of his friend James Abbott McNeil Whistler (1834-1903). This street has undergone many changes in the twentieth century; the row of elegant eighteenth century townhouses now faces a nineteenth century mansion on the left. The Cross Keys public house now appears at the end of Lordship Place on the right. A modern terrace sadly now masks the tower of Chelsea Old Church. In his recent essay on Grimshaw in London, Mark Bills describes a later version of the subject entitled An Idyll of Old Chelsea, 1893 (private collection) made just before the artist’s death. Though the format has changed from vertical to horizontal, from moonlight to twilight and the figuration from a man walking with a cane
76
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 76
15/08/2011 15:05
77
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 77
05/08/2011 13:25
27
Southwark Bridge from Blackfriars Signed and dated 1882; inscribed with the artist’s name, date and title on the reverse Oil on card: 14 x 21 in / 35.6 x 53.3 cm Provenance
Private collection, UK Richard Green, London, 1996 Private collection, UK, 1996 Richard Green, London Exhibited
London, Richard Green, Nineteenth Century Paintings, 2008, no. 25, pp. 70-71
Richard Green Gallery, for sale The Southwark Bridge depicted by Grimshaw was designed by the Scottish Civil Engineer John Rennie (who also designed Waterloo, New London and Old Vauxhall Bridges) and built between 1814 and 1819. The three-arch cast-iron bridge with a central span of 240 feet, the largest bridge ever constructed of this material, was described by Robert Stephenson as being ‘unrivalled as regards its colossal proportions, its architectural effects and the general simplicity and massive character of its details’ (R. Stephenson, ‘Iron Bridges’, Encyclopedia Britannica). It was replaced in 1912-1921 by the present five span steel bridge designed by the architect Sir Ernest George.
Though the bridge is the centre and subject of the painting, Grimshaw’s foreground focus is the dramatic lines of the stationary barges and cropped mooring posts before the mysterious riverside wharves. The slanting black sprits with unfurled sails of the tillersteered barges, cut through the air like the bare branches of his suburban street scenes.
Behind the silhouette of Southwark Bridge, on the left of the painting we can distinguish the dark profile of Canon Street Station’s iron train shed and the tip of its leaded domes and Wreninspired spires. Designed by Sir John Hawkshaw and JW Barry, the station was opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1866. On the south bank opposite, Grimshaw outlined the unique square tower and pinnacles of Southwark Cathedral, originally the parish church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie, and perhaps the earliest Gothic church in London.
The Thames by moonlight with Southwark Bridge, 1884 (oil on canvas) © Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London / The Bridgeman Art Library
78
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 78
05/08/2011 13:25
79
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 79
16/08/2011 21:09
28
London Bridge - Night Signed and dated 1884; signed, dated and inscribed with the title and Knostrop Hall, Leeds on the reverse Oil on canvas: 20 x 30 in / 50.8 x 76.2 cm Provenance
Ferrers Gallery, London The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, USA, 1964 Richard Green, London, 2002 Private collection, USA, 2002 Richard Green, London Exhibited
London, Ferrers Gallery, Grimshaw, 1964, no. 18 New York, Wildenstein, From Realism to Symbolism: Whistler and his world, 4th March-3rd April 1971, then Philadelphia Museum of Art, 15th April-23rd May 1971, no. 74
Richard Green Gallery, for sale bridge. The restricted headroom beneath the crossing prevented the passage of tall ships, necessitating their anchorage and unloading of cargo within easy reach of the wharves and warehouses along the riverside. Immediately to the right of the bridge on the north bank, Fresh Wharf, Cox & Hammond’s Quay were located, the principal wharves for the unloading of fish from medieval times, followed by Nicholson’s and Botolph wharf (destroyed in the Blitz) before Billingsgate Fishmarket and the Custom House, which are just out of view.
The Old London Bridge of the nursery rhyme was a medieval structure covered with dwellings, much like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence which survives to this day. The bridge portrayed in Grimshaw’s painting was a new bridge composed of five stone arches built between 1823 and 1831, completed by Sir John Rennie according to his father’s design. It was opened by King William IV and Queen Adelaide on 1st August 1831. This bridge was removed and re-erected at Lake Havasu City, Arizona in the 1960s. Unlike Grimshaw’s Reflections on the Thames: Westminster, 1880 (Leeds Art Gallery), in which he includes the busy Embankment with the suggestion of fallen women and their fate, London Bridge focusses solely on the river and the centrality of the work being done upon it. In the foreground, just above the artist’s signature, two Lightermen (so named from the process of ‘lightening’ the ship) lead a small convoy, straining to control their barge transporting cargo from the triple-masted ship just before the
To the left of the majestic ship’s masts, Grimshaw records the iconic London skyline; most importantly the dome and twin baroque towers of St Paul’s Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built between 1675 and 1710 after its predecessor was destroyed in the Great Fire of London. To the right it is also possible to discern the distinctive spire of Wren’s St Magnus the Martyr, built between 1671 and 1676. 80
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 80
15/08/2011 15:07
81
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 81
16/08/2011 21:09
London Bridge - Night (continued) Though Grimshaw was attracted to the energy and activity of shipping in the upper pool, he preferred to portray the picturesque outlines of tall ships and sailing barges rather than the steam tugs which no doubt increased river traffic and foreshadowed the demise of sail. We are grateful to Claire Frankland at the Museum of London Library for her assistance with the cataloguing of this work.
Nightfall down the Thames, 1880 (oil on canvas) Leeds Museums and Galleries (City Art Gallery) UK / The Bridgeman Art Library
82
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 82
16/08/2011 21:08
83
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 83
16/08/2011 21:09
84
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 84
05/08/2011 13:25
CHRONOLOGY
85
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 85
05/08/2011 13:25
Chronology of John Atkinson Grimshaw
1836 David Grimshaw, a policeman, and his wife, have a son, John Atkinson Grimshaw, born 6th September at 9 Back Park Street, Leeds. He had three brothers: William, Richard and Jonathan. 1842 The family move to Norwich where John Atkinson Grimshaw attends the King Edward VII Grammar school. 1848 The family return to Leeds. David becomes an employee of the railways and Mrs Grimshaw opens a grocery shop in Brunswick Row.
John Atkinson Grimshaw and Theodosia Grimshaw (b/w photo), British Photographer (19th century) / Leeds Museums and Galleries (City Art Gallery) U.K. / The Bridgeman Art Library
1852 John Atkinson Grimshaw becomes a clerk with the Great Northern Railway and begins to paint in his spare time, despite family opposition. 1858 Grimshaw marries his cousin Frances Theodosia Hubbarde, daughter of James Dibdin Hubbarde, editor of The Wakefield Journal. The couple settle in Wallace Street, New Wortley, Leeds. 1859 Grimshaw begins to sell his paintings professionally, especially to the bookseller Mr Fenteman. 1861 Grimshaw gives up his career with the railways to devote himself to painting.
Carte de Visite of John Atkinson Grimshaw (b/w photo), British Photographer (19th century) / Leeds Museums and Galleries (City Art Gallery) U.K. / The Bridgeman Art Library
86
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 86
05/08/2011 13:25
1862 Grimshaw exhibits his work publicly for the first time at Newton Brothers, Park Lane, Leeds, receiving favourable reviews in the Leeds Mercury for The Family Favourites. He exhibits at the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society in December. 1863 Grimshaw visits the Lake District and the family moves to The Villas, Cliff Road, Woodhouse Ridge, Leeds. Grimshaw paints Theodosia as Ophelia. 1866 Grimshaw exhibits Apples at the Royal Institution, Manchester.
Nab Scar, 1864 (private collection)
1867 Grimshaw begins to paint moonlit scenes. The family converts to Roman Catholicism. 1868 Following a campaign in The Yorkshire Post, The Heron’s Haunt and The Seal of the Covenant are accepted in the National Exhibition of Works of Art, Leeds. Grimshaw visits London and returns to the Lake District. Arthur Grimshaw is born. 1869 Grimshaw shows five paintings in the Leeds Mechanics’ Institute Picture Gallery. 1870 The Grimshaw family rent Knostrop Hall; these are the artist’s most successful years. Thomas Agnew handles and exhibits his work.
Photograph of Knostrop Old Hall, entrance. By kind permission of Leeds Library & Information Services, www.leodis.net
87
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 87
15/08/2011 15:12
Chronology of John Atkinson Grimshaw CONTINUED 1872 A House of Commons committee commissions Grimshaw to paint three views of the Roundhay Estate in order to consider the Leeds Corporation Improvement Bill which sought to make the area a public park. 1874 Grimshaw has his first work accepted at the Royal Academy, London, The Lady of the Lea. 1875 Four paintings by Grimshaw are accepted at The Yorkshire Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures. Grimshaw paints a series of paintings of fashionable women. ‘Castle-by-the-sea’, Scarborough. © Scarborough Museums Trust
1876 Grimshaw makes additions to a house in Scarborough, ‘Castle-by-the-Sea’, named after Longfellow’s poem, which he rents from Thomas Jarvis, a local brewer and patron of Grimshaw. 1877 The twins Elaine and Lancelot are born and named after characters in Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. 1878 Grimshaw travels to Germany through France, escorting the governess Mrs Ruhl home.
88
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 88
05/08/2011 13:25
1879 Agnes Leefe joins the household as a model and studio assistant. Grimshaw having guaranteed a friend’s debt upon which he defaulted, the family is plunged into financial catastrophe. 1880 Endymion on Mount Latmus is accepted by the Royal Academy, London. Grimshaw shows his work at Arthur Tooth and takes a studio in Manresa Road, Chelsea. Whistler and Grimshaw become close friends.
At anchor, 1893 (private collection)
1885 A Vestal is exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery, London. 1886 Iris is shown at the Royal Academy, London. 1890 Grimshaw gives a lecture, ‘Watchwords for Workers’, at the Leeds Photographic Society. Agnes Leefe dies of tuberculosis at Knostrop Hall. Grimshaw virtually ceases painting until 1892. 1893 Grimshaw’s last works are mostly snow scenes. He dies of cancer at Knostrop Hall on 31 October. He is buried in Woodhouse cemetery, Leeds, which was later cleared by Leeds University. Grimshaw’s bones are placed in an ossuary.
89
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 89
15/08/2011 15:13
TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF SALE
Seller agrees to sell and Buyer agrees to buy the Work on the Terms set out in this document.
3.3 If Buyer fails to accept delivery of the Work at the Address at the agreed time (1) Seller may charge Buyer for the reasonable costs of storage, insurance and re-delivery; (2) risk in the Work shall immediately pass to Buyer; and (3) Seller is irrevocably authorised by the Buyer to deposit the Work at the Address if delivery has not occurred within six months. 3.4 Seller is not responsible for any deterioration of the Work, howsoever occasioned, after risk in the Work has passed to Buyer. 3.5 Unless agreed in writing between the parties, responsibility for insurance of the Work passes to Buyer on Delivery and Buyer acknowledges that thereafter Seller shall not be responsible for insuring the Work.
1. DEFINITIONS OF TERMS ‘Address’ the address to which both parties have agreed in writing the Work is to be delivered; ‘Agreement’ the agreement for the sale of the Work set out on the Invoice; ‘Buyer’ the person(s) named on the Invoice; ‘Delivery’ when the Work is received by Buyer or Buyer’s agent at the Address; ‘Invoice’ the sales invoice; ‘Invoice Address’ the address which Buyer has requested on the Invoice; ‘Local Taxes’ local import taxes and duties, and local sales and use taxes, including VAT where applicable; ‘Price’ the Invoice price of the Work; ‘Seller’ Richard Green (Fine Paintings) or Richard Green & Sons Limited; ‘Terms’ the terms and conditions of sale in this document which include any special terms agreed in writing between Buyer and Seller; ‘Third Party Payer’ shall have the meaning set out at clause 2.4; ‘VAT’ United Kingdom value added tax; and ‘Work’ the work or works of art detailed on the Invoice.
4. PAYMENT 4.1 The Price shall be as stated on the Invoice. Payment shall be made in full by bank transfer or cheque and is received when Seller has cleared f unds. 4.2 Full payment of the Price shall be made to Seller within 30 days of receipt of Invoice. Interest shall be payable on overdue amounts at the rate of 3% per annum above Royal Bank of Scotland Base Rate for Sterling. 4.3 Until full title to the Work has passed, Buyer shall not sell, export, dispose of, or part with possession of the Work. 4.4 Until full title to the Work has passed, Buyer shall hold the Work unencumbered as Seller’s fiduciary agent and bailee and shall: (1) keep the Work at Buyer’s premises separate from the property of Buyer and third parties and identified as Seller’s property and properly stored with adequate security measures; (2) keep the Work comprehensively insured for not less than the Price, have Seller’s interest noted on the policy and provide a copy of such notification to Seller; and (3) preserve the Work in an unaltered state, in particular not undertake any work whatsoever and shall take all reason able steps to prevent any damage to or deterioration of the Work. 4.5 Until such time as full title to the Work has passed, if Buyer is in breach of clauses 4.3 or 4.4; or (1) Buyer (if it is more than one person, jointly and/or severally) shall enter into, and/or itself apply for, and/or call meetings of members and/or partners and/or creditors with a view to, one or more of a moratorium, interim order, administration, liquidation (of any kind, including provisional), bankruptcy (including appointment of an interim receiver), or composition and/or arrangement (whether under deed or otherwise) with creditors, and/or have any of its property subjected to one or more of appointment of a receiver (of any kind), enforcement of security, distress, or execution of a judgment (to include similar events under the laws of other countries);or (2) Seller reasonably apprehends that any of the events mentioned above is about to occur in relation to Buyer and notifies Buyer accordingly; or (3) Buyer does anything which may in any way adversely affect Seller’s title in the Work, then Seller or its agent may immediately repossess the Work and/or void the sale with or without notice and Buyer will return the Work to Seller’s nominated address (at Buyer’s sole risk and cost), or, at Seller’s option, Seller may enter the premises where the Work is kept to regain possession.
2. BASIS OF PURCHASE 2.1 The Terms shall govern the Agreement to the exclusion of any other terms and representations communicated to Buyer prior to entering into this Agreement and to Buyer’s own conditions (if any) and constitute the entire agreement and understanding of the parties in relation to the sale of the Work. 2.2 Delivery of the Work will be made following receipt by Seller of the Price in cleared funds. Buyer shall be responsible for all costs of Delivery. 2.3 Seller reserves the right to require Buyer to present such documents as Seller may require to confirm Buyer’s identity. 2.4 Where payment of the Price is made by someone other than Buyer (‘Third Party Payer’) Seller may require documents to confirm the identity of Third Party Payer and the relationship between Buyer and Third Party Payer. Seller may decline payments from Third Party Payers. 3. RISK TITLE AND INSURANCE 3.1 Seller shall deliver the Work to the Address. Risk of damage to or loss of the Work shall pass to Buyer on Delivery. Dates quoted for Delivery are approximate and Seller shall not be liable for delay. Time of Delivery shall not be of the essence. Buyer shall provide Seller with all information and documentation necessary to enable Delivery. 3.2 Notwithstanding Delivery and passing of risk, title in the Work shall not pass to Buyer until Seller (1) receives in cleared funds the Price and any other amount owed by Buyer in connection with the sale of the Work; and (2) is satisfied as to the identity of Buyer and any Third Party Payer and its relationship to Buyer.
90
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 90
05/08/2011 13:25
5. REPRESENTATION OF SELLER 5.1 Seller confirms that, to the best of its knowledge and belief, it has authority to sell the Work. 5.2 Buyer agrees that all liability of Seller and all rights of Buyer against Seller in relation to the Work howsoever arising and of whatever nature shall cease after the expiry of five years from Delivery. This paragraph does not prejudice Buyer’s statutory rights. 5.3 Notwithstanding anything in this Agreement to the contrary, Seller shall not be liable to Buyer for any loss of profits, loss of revenue, goodwill or for any indirect or consequential loss arising out of or in connection with this Agreement, whenever the same may arise, and Seller’s total and cumulative liability for losses whether for breach of contract, tort or otherwise and including liability for negligence (except in relation to (i) death or personal injury caused by Seller’s negligence or (ii) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation by Seller) shall in no event exceed the Price. 5.4 All representations made by Seller as to the authenticity, attribution, description, date, age, provenance, title or condition of the Work constitute the Seller’s opinion only and are not warranted by Seller. Seller accepts no liability as a result of any changes in expert opinion or scholarship which may take place subsequent to entry into this Agreement.
8.2 Both parties agree that in entering into the Agreement neither party relies on, nor has any remedy in respect of, any statement, representation or warranty, negligently or innocently made to any person (whether party to this Agreement or not) other than as set out in the Agreement as a warranty. The only remedy for breach of any warranty shall be for breach of contract under the Agreement. Nothing in the Agreement shall operate to limit or exclude any liability for fraud. 8.3 The benefit of the Agreement and the rights thereunder shall not be assignable by Buyer. Seller may sub-contract its obligations. 8.4 Any notice in connection with the Agreement shall be in writing and shall be delivered by hand or by post to Seller’s registered office at the time of posting or to Buyer to the Invoice Address, and shall be deemed delivered on delivery if by hand or on the third day after posting if posted. 8.5 In the case of a consumer contract within the meaning of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, these conditions shall not apply to the extent that they would be rendered void or unenforceable by virtue of the provisions thereof. 8.6 No amendment, modification, waiver of or variation to the Invoice or the Agreement shall be binding unless agreed in writing and signed by an authorised representative of Buyer and Seller. 8.7 Neither Seller nor Buyer intends the terms of the Agreement to be enforceable by a third party pursuant to the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. 8.8 The Agreement and all rights and obligations of Seller and Buyer under it shall be governed by English Law in every particular and, subject always to the prior application of the arbitration provisions set out in clause 9, both parties agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.
6. COPYRIGHT All copyright in material relating to the Work vesting in Seller shall remain Seller’s. Seller reserves the right to exploit all such copyright. 7. EXPORT AND LOCAL TAXES 7.1 Where the Work is to be exported from the UK by Buyer, this Agreement is conditional on the granting of any requisite export licence or permission, which the parties shall use reasonable endeavours to obtain. 7.2 Where the Work is, or is to be exported from the European Union and VAT has not been charged because, by reason of such intended export, the Work is zero rated or not subject to VAT, both parties shall take all necessary steps to ensure that there is compliance with the time limits and formalities laid down by HM Revenue & Customs and that such documentation as is required, including any necessary proofs of export and Bills of Lading are fully and properly completed. Buyer shall indemnify Seller against any claims made against Seller for VAT or any other expenses or penalties imposed by reason of Buyer’s failure to observe and comply with the formalities referred to herein. 7.3 Unless otherwise stated on the Invoice, Buyer shall be responsible for all Local Taxes.
9. ARBITRATION 9.1 All claims and disputes relating to, or in connection with, the Agreement are to be referred to a single arbitrator in London pursuant to the Arbitration Act 1996. In the event that the parties cannot agree upon an arbitrator either party may apply to the President of the Law Society of England and Wales for the time being to appoint as arbitrator a Queen’s Counsel of not less than 5 years standing. The decision of the arbitrator shall be final and binding. 9.2 Save that Buyer acknowledges Seller’s right to seek, and the power of the High Court to grant interim relief, no action shall be brought in relation to any claim or dispute until the arbitrator has conducted an arbitration and made his award. March 2006
8. GENERAL 8.1 Buyer shall not be entitled to the benefit of any set-off and sums pay able to Seller shall be paid without any deduction whatsoever. In the event of non-payment Seller shall be entitled to obtain and enforce judgement without determination of any cross claim by Buyer.
“Richard Green” is a registered trade mark of Richard Green Old Master Paintings Ltd in the EU, the USA and other countries. Asking prices are current at time of going to press - Richard Green reserves the right to amend these prices in line with market values
91
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 91
05/08/2011 13:25
RICHARD GREEN Richard Green has assisted in the formation and development of numerous private and public collections. These include the following;
UNITED KINGDOM Aberdeen: City Art Gallery Altrincham: Dunham Massey (NT) Barnard Castle: Bowes Museum Bedford: Cecil Higgins Museum Canterbury: Royal Museum and Art Gallery Cheltenham: Art Gallery and Museum Chester: The Grosvenor Museum Coventry: City Museum Dedham: Sir Alfred Munnings Art Museum Hampshire: County Museums Service Hull: Ferens Art Gallery Ipswich: Borough Council Museums and Galleries Leeds: Leeds City Art Gallery Lincoln: Usher Gallery Liskeard: Thorburn Museum London: Chiswick House (English Heritage) Department of the Environment The Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood The Museum of London National Maritime Museum National Portrait Gallery National Postal Museum Tate Britain The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum Lydiard Tregoze: Lydiard House Norwich: Castle Museum Plymouth: City Museum and Art Gallery Richmond: London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and Orleans House Gallery St Helier: States of Jersey (Office) Southsea: Royal Marine Museum Stirling: Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum York: York City Art Gallery
CANADA Fredericton: Beaverbrook Art Gallery Ottawa: The National Gallery of Canada UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Boston, MA: Museum of Fine Arts Cincinnati, OH: Art Museum Gainesville, FL: Harn Museum of Art Houston, TX: Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation Los Angeles, CA: J Paul Getty Museum New Haven, CT: Yale Center for British Art New York, NY: Dahesh Museum Ocala, FL: The Appleton Museum of Art Omaha, NE: Joslyn Art Museum Pasadena, CA: Norton Simon Museum Rochester, NY: Genessee County Museum St Louis, MO: Missouri Historical Society Sharon, MA: Kendall Whaling Museum Toledo, OH: Toledo Museum of Art Ventura County, CA: Maritime Museum Washington, DC: The National Gallery The White House Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Winona, MN: Minnesota Marine Art Museum Worcester, MA: Worcester Art Museum
EIRE Dublin: National Gallery of Ireland FRANCE Compiègne: Musée National du Château GERMANY Berlin: Staatliche Kunsthalle Darmstadt: Hessisches Landesmuseum Hannover: Niedersachsisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe: Staatliche Kunsthalle Speyer am Rhein: Historisches Museum der Pfalz HOLLAND Amsterdam: Joods Historisch Museum Rijksmuseum Utrecht: Centraal Museum SOUTH AFRICA Durban: Art Museum SPAIN Madrid: Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Sun Fernando Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional del Prado SWITZERLAND Zurich: Schweizerisches Landesmuseum
BELGIUM Antwerp: Maisons Rockox Courtrai: City Art Gallery
Published by Richard Green, John Atkinson Grimshaw, Wednesday 21st September 2011 © All rights reserved
DENMARK Tröense: Maritime Museum
Catalogue by Rachel Boyd. Photography by Sophie Drury. Design by Theo Hodges Design. Printed in England by Butler Tanner & Dennis. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated (without the publisher’s prior consent), in any form of binding or other cover than in which it is published, and without similar condition being imposed on another purchaser. All material contained in this catalogue is subject to the new laws of copyright, December 1989. 92
RG_Grimshaw Catalogue 2011_Inside_AW.indd 92
15/08/2011 16:08