St Cecilia

Details

John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893)
St Cecilia
signed and dated 'JA Grimshaw 1852.B.7.' (lower right)
oil on board
12 x 7 7/8 in. (30.5 x 20 cm.)

Provenance

Edmund Bates, 1863.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's Belgravia, 19 March 1979, lot 20.
with Peter Nahum, London.

Exhibited

Leeds, Philosophical Hall, 1862-3.
Leeds City Art Gallery, Atkinson Grimshaw 1836-1893, 1979, no. 10, pl. 10 (in exh. cat, but not exhibited).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

When included in the 1979 exhibition catalogue, this painting was thought to be the earliest figure work by Grimshaw thus far traced. Executed in the Pre-Raphaelite manner of painting on a wet white ground, it depicts St Cecilia, patron saint of music, with eyes raised towards heaven. Remarkably, it survives in its original frame. Its first owner, Edmund Bates was delighted by 'those hands quivering with the power and harmony of their own wondrous skill'.

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