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Lot Essay
In the 1880s Grimshaw's work took on a more somber air. By contrast with the brightly colored aesthetic interiors of the 1870s, he now painted views of near empty streets or foggy docksides in London and Liverpool. Many of these images depict the newly built villas of Victorian England. These walled manors were painted in early morning or evening light, and often included in the picture a solitary figure walking along a winding road.
Victorian poets were a constant inspiration for Grimshaw's work. Contemporary literature such as Wordsworth's To the Moon, and Shelley's Night could very well describe a Grimshaw painting. For example in Enoche Arden Tennyson wrote:
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...
1886, the year November morning was painted, Grimshaw was at the height of his career. He worked constantly, producing numerous drawings that he would later use as studies for his paintings. Alexander Robertson commented on Grimshaw's painting technique. 'The criticism that Grimshaw's paintings showed 'no marks of handling or brushwork', hints at a working method apparently mysterious, even suspect. However, this was certainly not the case. Grimshaw normally used a lead-white ground or a buff-tinted one. He usually underpainted in black and raw umber where the shadows or dense areas were to be. On to this surface he scumbled his broken colour, which allowed the light, so important in his work, to come back through; this helps to explain the large number of bristle hairs frequently found in this layer of the paint surface. He would then 'draw in', with black or whatever, the surface local colour, occasionally incorporating sand or sawdust in the impasto' (A. Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, London, 1988, p. 107).
We are grateful to Alex Robertson for confirming the authenticity of this work.
Victorian poets were a constant inspiration for Grimshaw's work. Contemporary literature such as Wordsworth's To the Moon, and Shelley's Night could very well describe a Grimshaw painting. For example in Enoche Arden Tennyson wrote:
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...
1886, the year November morning was painted, Grimshaw was at the height of his career. He worked constantly, producing numerous drawings that he would later use as studies for his paintings. Alexander Robertson commented on Grimshaw's painting technique. 'The criticism that Grimshaw's paintings showed 'no marks of handling or brushwork', hints at a working method apparently mysterious, even suspect. However, this was certainly not the case. Grimshaw normally used a lead-white ground or a buff-tinted one. He usually underpainted in black and raw umber where the shadows or dense areas were to be. On to this surface he scumbled his broken colour, which allowed the light, so important in his work, to come back through; this helps to explain the large number of bristle hairs frequently found in this layer of the paint surface. He would then 'draw in', with black or whatever, the surface local colour, occasionally incorporating sand or sawdust in the impasto' (A. Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, London, 1988, p. 107).
We are grateful to Alex Robertson for confirming the authenticity of this work.