Lot Essay
The second, larger version of Grimshaw's treatment of this theme. The first was exhibited by Agnew's in Manchester in 1874 and is presumably the picture shown at the Ferrers Gallery in 1970 (Atkinson Grimshaw, cat. p.27, repr.). Between the two versions, in 1877, Grimshaw also painted two pictures illustrating another poem by Tennyson, 'Lancelot and Elaine' from The Idylls of the King (one exh. Atkinson Grimshaw, Leeds, etc., 1979-80, no.65., repr. in cat.) The stories are very similar and Grimshaw uses essentially the same image for all four paintings, although the Lady of Shalott is seen drifting down the river between fields and trees, while Elaine has got further and the towers and spires of Camelot already fill the background.
Grimshaw was a great admirer of Tennyson, even naming his children after characters in the Idylls. The influence of the Pre-Raphaelites, so strong in his work in the sixties, is also relevant; Rossetti and Holman Hunt had illustrated 'The Lady of Shallott' in the famous Moxon Tennyson of 1857, and the poem inspired works by Burne-Jones and Arthur Hughes. The popularity of Tennyson was such, however, that many Victorian artists painted pictures based either on this poem or 'Lancelot and Elaine', perhaps the best known of all the 'Ladies of Shalott' being J.W. Waterhouse's version of 1888 (Tate Gallery). It has also been suggested that Grimshaw's Elaine owes something to Gustave Doré's illustrations to the poem, published 1877.
Despite their place in a well-trodden tradition, Grimshaw managed to treat his Tennysonian subjects with startling originality, seeing them in terms of the visual vocabulary he used so often for his views of cities and docks by night. No doubt David Bromfield is also right in seeing a parallel between the two heroines, each dying of unrequited love for Sir Lancelot, and the lovesick girls - 'the lonely figure(s) in the leafy lanes' - who appear in so many of Grimshaw's modern subjects (1979-80 exh. cat., p.19).
'The Castle by the Sea' was the house Grimshaw built for himself at Scarborough in 1876 but had to sell as a result of a financial crisis three years later.
Grimshaw was a great admirer of Tennyson, even naming his children after characters in the Idylls. The influence of the Pre-Raphaelites, so strong in his work in the sixties, is also relevant; Rossetti and Holman Hunt had illustrated 'The Lady of Shallott' in the famous Moxon Tennyson of 1857, and the poem inspired works by Burne-Jones and Arthur Hughes. The popularity of Tennyson was such, however, that many Victorian artists painted pictures based either on this poem or 'Lancelot and Elaine', perhaps the best known of all the 'Ladies of Shalott' being J.W. Waterhouse's version of 1888 (Tate Gallery). It has also been suggested that Grimshaw's Elaine owes something to Gustave Doré's illustrations to the poem, published 1877.
Despite their place in a well-trodden tradition, Grimshaw managed to treat his Tennysonian subjects with startling originality, seeing them in terms of the visual vocabulary he used so often for his views of cities and docks by night. No doubt David Bromfield is also right in seeing a parallel between the two heroines, each dying of unrequited love for Sir Lancelot, and the lovesick girls - 'the lonely figure(s) in the leafy lanes' - who appear in so many of Grimshaw's modern subjects (1979-80 exh. cat., p.19).
'The Castle by the Sea' was the house Grimshaw built for himself at Scarborough in 1876 but had to sell as a result of a financial crisis three years later.