Atkinson Grimshaw was a keen amateur photographer and often used photographs as source material for his paintings (see lot 115). He is also believed to have used a magic lantern to enlarge a photograph and project it onto a canvas, and in the present pictures we find him actually working over a photographic base. Grimshaw's use of photographs is discussed at greater length by David Bromfield in the introduction to the catalogue of the Grimshaw Exhibition held at Leeds 1979-80 and by Alexander Robinson in his monograph on the artist, 1888, pp.110-14.
We are grateful to Alex Robertson for his help in cataloguing this entry.