Lot 84
John Atkinson Grimshaw(British, 1836-1893)Old Scarborough
27 September 2017, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £161,000 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our 19th Century & Orientalist Paintings specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Client Services (UK)
Shipping (UK)
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).
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.
