Atkinson Grimshaw ~ 'Painter of Moonlight at the Mercer Art Gallery

Written by Ronan Aldridge Wednesday, 01 June 2011 22:48

Harrogate, England.- Following its recent refurbishment, the Mercer Gallery in Harrogate, Yorkshire re-opened with a major new exhibition. "Atkinson Grimshaw: Painter of Moonlight" is the first major exhibition in over 30 years devoted to this Victorian artist and brings together over 50 major works, providing a once in a lifetime opportunity to see paintings by this celebrated self-taught artist, including many works not seen in public for decades and generously lent by private collectors. "Atkinson Grimshaw: Painter of Moonlight" is on view at the gallery until September 4th.

The exhibition charts Grimshaw’s career, from his early Pre-Raphaelite paintings of the 1860s to the series of tiny, subtly toned oil paintings, produced at the end of his life, that captured the extraordinary light of sun, snow and mist. Atkinson Grimshaw's "Silver Moonlight" and "In the Gloaming (A Yorkshire Home)" are two of the most popular works in the collection of the Mercer Art Gallery. The Leeds born artist became famous for his Pre-Raphaelite style landscapes and nocturnal urban scenes, with his distinctive leafless trees silhouetted against the moonlit sky. John Atkinson Grimshaw was one of the most successful artists of his day. As with all Victorian art, in the twentieth century his paintings went completely out of favour, although Grimshaw himself did not live long enough either to see his style of painting plummet in popularity, or to suffer the ignominy of having his work sell for grudgingly low prices. His paintings today enjoy a remarkable renaissance that started about forty years ago and continues to push Grimshaw into the top of the ranks of most desired Victorian artists. A number of Grimshaw exhibitions were held in the 1960s and 1970s, but it is now thirty years since the last exhibition of his work, curated by Alexander Robertson for Leeds City Art Gallery, Southampton and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. Since then, a whole new audience has emerged for Grimshaw’s evocative moonlit scenes.

Grimshaw was a self-taught artist who worked in the North of England in the second half of the nineteenth century. He defied his strictly religious parents and left a good job with the railway to become an artist, and rapidly made a name for himself as a painter; first of all for Pre-Raphaelite style landscapes, and then for his interpretation of the Victorian city and the new urban experience of its inhabitants. Grimshaw enjoyed considerable success in his career, and took his brood of children to live in some splendour at Knostrop Hall, a large old rented house in Leeds, with a spell of several years spent in similar style living in Scarborough. He worked prolifically and gathered to him a group of dedicated patrons and collectors. Grimshaw was constantly on the lookout to find ways of making money in order to support his large family. He was not afraid to experiment, making theatrical fairy paintings and allegorical portraits of fashionable women, who could as easily have stepped out of a painting by the French artist, Tissot.


In his early career in the 1860s, Grimshaw’s principal subject matter was the landscape, which he homed in on with a Pre-Raphaelite eye for detail. The Lake District was a favourite early source of inspiration, producing such early masterpieces as "Blea Tarn, First Light", 1865, and The "Bowder Stone, Borrowdale", c.1865. Yorkshire, in particular the beauties of Wharfedale, was omnipresent in his work, from classically picturesque subjects such as Bolton Abbey, to the public parks and woods around the city of Leeds. One of the most compelling aspects of Grimshaw’s painting is his ability to evoke a particular atmosphere, often of melancholy. He painted many pictures where the main subject is an old building surrounded by trees. There is not a figure in sight, yet there is a palpable presence in the painting. "Autumn Glory: the Old Mill Cheshire", 1869, is one of these paintings, and one of Grimshaw’s best known masterpieces. The old mill in the painting has since been identified as a specific location, but in many cases Grimshaw’s settings are inventions. For the greater part of his career, from the 1870s until the end of his life, Atkinson Grimshaw explored the effects of mist and moonlight and the dying light of an autumn afternoon. The Mercer Art Gallery’s "Silver Moonlight", 1880, is a classic of its kind: the solitary figure of a girl walks in the moonlight down a wide, walled, lane towards an imposing looking house, a few windows glowing orange in contrast to the overall grey/green tone of the painting.

Grimshaw’s work stands out among that of his contemporaries for his preoccupation with the new urban life. Not just the darkened drama of  industrial smoke, steam and city clutter, as in "Leeds Bridge", 1880, but also with the suburban street, as in "October Gold", 1893, and of course with the city itself. True drama comes to the foreground in Grimshaw’s paintings of the sea, most famously in his beloved Scarborough and Whitby. "In Peril", 1879, depicts the anguish of windswept figures on the harbour front as they burn a beacon to guide the crew of a boat battered by a storm out in the bay. In "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi", 1876, the Spa Saloon is burnt to the ground by man-made disaster.


In the 1870s and 1880s, Atkinson Grimshaw introduced female figures into his paintings, sometimes suggesting an historical period, as in "Ye Ladye Bountifulle", 1884, but more often attempting different depictions of the ‘modern woman’. These works, such as "Autumn Regrets", 1882, are very much influenced by the work of the fashionable French exile artist, Jean Jacques Tissot. "The Chorale", 1878, explores the subject of the pretty woman in an aesthetically appropriate interior. At the end of his life, Grimshaw was more preoccupied than ever with questions of colour, tone and light. He produced a series of tiny, subtly toned oil paintings that captured the extraordinary light of sun, snow and mist on the beach, a series of small symphonies in green and grey that link him forever with his close contemporary, James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). Grimshaw died of liver disease at the age of 57. He may be regarded as self-taught in all that gave character and distinction to his art. His methods, treatment and colouring were quite unlike anything in ordinary practice. Originality stamped his work from the first, and some of the effects which, early in his career, were successfully attempted, excited considerable controversy among contemporary artists. They showed no marks of handling or brushwork, and not a few artists were doubtful whether they could be accepted as paintings at all.

Housed in Harrogate's elegant former promenade rooms, the Mercer is home to the district's collection of fine art and the venue for a rich diversity of exhibitions, especially renowned for historic art exhibitions. The gallery celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2011 with a major refurbishment. The gallery has two spaces, the Main Gallery and the smaller North Gallery. The changing exhibition programme for both galleries ranges from national touring exhibitions of painting, photography, sculpture and crafts to exhibitions from the permanent collections to displays by local artists. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.harrogate.gov.uk/pages/harrogate-1405.aspx#MercerArtGallery

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