Lot 84

John Atkinson Grimshaw
(British, 1836-1893)
Old Scarborough

19th Century European, Victorian and British Impressionist Art

27 September 2017, 14:00 BST

London, New Bond Street

Sold for £161,000 inc. premium

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John Atkinson Grimshaw (British, 1836-1893)

Old Scarborough
signed and dated 'Atkinson Grimshaw/1882 +' (lower right)
oil on board
35 x 45.4cm (13 3/4 x 17 7/8in).

Footnotes

We are grateful to Alexander Robertson for confirming the attribution to John Atkinson Grimshaw on the basis of photographs.

Provenance
Private collection, UK.

Grimshaw's long association with Scarborough began in the mid-1870s, when the artist rented a house in the town - which he named 'Castle-by-the-sea' after the Henry Longfellow poem - and secured the patronage of Thomas Jarvis, a local brewer.¹ Scarborough was by then becoming a prosperous town, deriving an income from tourism as well as from fishing.

Grimshaw's time in Scarborough was productive and successful; his house attracted famous visitors such as George du Maurier and Ellen Terry, and the harbour provided the backdrop for some of the artist's most accomplished and atmospheric nocturnes. The present lot shows the South Bay under moonlight, with the outline of St. Mary's chapel prominent in the skyline. Lights twinkle from the shoreline cottages, and from a boat moored in the open water. A solitary figure stands beside the harboured boats on the quayside, silhouetted beneath a glowing streetlamp.

¹Alexander Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, London, 1988, p. 62.

Additional information

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- 19th Century & Orientalist Paintings