John Atkinson Grimshaw was born in Leeds, Victorian England in 1836. He lived with his parents in a modest working class terraced house at the time of industrialisation. As a young man he worked for a railway company, but soon he was attracted to painting and to his cousin Frances Hubbard. He married Frances and quit the profession in favor of his love of art. He taught himself to paint. Unfortunately, not much is known about Grimshaw. His life and work took place in the north of England. His paintings are mainly in private ownership. And he left no letters or other documents concerning himself. He was often underestimated, even considered by contemporaries to be incapable of producing any artistic work at all. Others found him great, including James Abbott McNeill Whistler, with whom Grimshaw worked. Whistler recognized him as a great master with a special understanding of techniques and lighting conditions.
In his early years Grimshaw made pictures of flowers, birds and fruit. The Pre-Raphaelite influenced him. Later he devoted himself with passion to nocturnal city scenes. He knew better than almost anyone else how to depict realistically wet, misty streets of the big cities of England and Scotland, illuminated by dim gas lamps. Despite their at times lonely evening mood, the pictures radiate a certain cheerfulness, seem mysterious, almost surreal - as if the painted motifs were only a strange dream. Grimshaw was also fascinated by the maritime world. Among his works are numerous pictures of magnificent windjammers, anchored in the harbours of Liverpool and Glasgow. Often, the moon, intimidated by a cloud cover, illuminates the scenery and gives it a certain romanticism, but without glossing over the oppressive atmosphere of the former industrial cities of England.
In the meantime Grimshaw ventured into other areas, painting enchanted motifs of fairies and elves as well as figures from Arthurian mythology, such as the Lady of Shalott, floating on a barge in calm waters.
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John Atkinson Grimshaw died of cancer in 1893 when he was only 57 years old. A blue commemorative plaque has been placed on one of his former and later residential buildings in Leeds. Two of his children devoted themselves to painting, as he once did.
John Atkinson Grimshaw was born in Leeds, Victorian England in 1836. He lived with his parents in a modest working class terraced house at the time of industrialisation. As a young man he worked for a railway company, but soon he was attracted to painting and to his cousin Frances Hubbard. He married Frances and quit the profession in favor of his love of art. He taught himself to paint. Unfortunately, not much is known about Grimshaw. His life and work took place in the north of England. His paintings are mainly in private ownership. And he left no letters or other documents concerning himself. He was often underestimated, even considered by contemporaries to be incapable of producing any artistic work at all. Others found him great, including James Abbott McNeill Whistler, with whom Grimshaw worked. Whistler recognized him as a great master with a special understanding of techniques and lighting conditions.
In his early years Grimshaw made pictures of flowers, birds and fruit. The Pre-Raphaelite influenced him. Later he devoted himself with passion to nocturnal city scenes. He knew better than almost anyone else how to depict realistically wet, misty streets of the big cities of England and Scotland, illuminated by dim gas lamps. Despite their at times lonely evening mood, the pictures radiate a certain cheerfulness, seem mysterious, almost surreal - as if the painted motifs were only a strange dream. Grimshaw was also fascinated by the maritime world. Among his works are numerous pictures of magnificent windjammers, anchored in the harbours of Liverpool and Glasgow. Often, the moon, intimidated by a cloud cover, illuminates the scenery and gives it a certain romanticism, but without glossing over the oppressive atmosphere of the former industrial cities of England.
In the meantime Grimshaw ventured into other areas, painting enchanted motifs of fairies and elves as well as figures from Arthurian mythology, such as the Lady of Shalott, floating on a barge in calm waters.
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John Atkinson Grimshaw died of cancer in 1893 when he was only 57 years old. A blue commemorative plaque has been placed on one of his former and later residential buildings in Leeds. Two of his children devoted themselves to painting, as he once did.
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