John Atkinson Grimshaw (British, 1836-1893)


Wasdale Head with Great Gable in the distance oil on board33 x 45.8cm (13 x 18 1/16in).
|We are grateful to Alexander Robertson for confirming the attribution to John Atkinson Grimshaw on the basis of photographs.ProvenancePrivate collection, UK.John Atkinson Grimshaw made the transition from still life painting to landscapes circa 1863. His technique was continually evolving, and works from this period are evidence of his close alignment to the methods and principals of the Pre-Raphaelites and the mantra of 'truth to nature' as espoused by John Ruskin. Painstaking attention to detail and an endeavour to record true nature particularly manifest themselves in a series of Lake District views that Grimshaw produced in the 1860s. The present lot, from a private UK collection, is an exciting addition to this series.In an essay to accompany the major Grimshaw retrospective in 2011, Frank Milner notes that many of Grimshaw's Lake District views relate very closely to photographs and lantern slides produced by the firm of Thomas Ogle of Penrith. The Grimshaw archive at Leeds Art Gallery contains an album of such views which belonged to the artist, including photographs that are similar in composition to works such as Blea Tarn, First Light, Langdale Pikes in the Distance (1865) and Nab Scar, The Lake District (1864). Grimshaw was known to have used projections and photographs later in his career, but Milner notes that Grimshaw uses not just photographs but coloured lantern-slides much earlier on, suggesting 'the idea that photography was for Grimshaw an aide-memoire preceding the more important creative business of painting.... does not help to explain what appears to have taken place. We may understand the artist's work better if we see Grimshaw as someone who deployed some of the craft skills of the sophisticated Victorian photographer from the start of his career'.1 Milner speculates about Grimshaw's working methods: on the reverse of Blea Tarn for example, Grimshaw has noted that the work was painted 'on the spot', whereas we know of his use of the Ogle photographs. 'One possible scenario' Milner notes 'is that he first projected, traced and copied in colour from a pre-coloured lantern slide in his studio... then he visited... added to and overlaid more colour. Back in the studio, he added further thin layers of paint and an invented foreground in which he copied details from foliage and stones that he had gathered on the spot and elsewhere'.2Perhaps this was the technique used in the present lot, which depicts a recognisable view of Wasdale Head, a small hamlet in the Lake District National Park. Located in the valley of Wasdale, the hamlet is surrounded by mountains such as Scafell Pike, Sca Fell, Kirk Fell, Pillar and Great Gable, as seen in the distance. The Wasdale Inn was originally a farmhouse and the ancient packhorse arched bridge made of stone, visible to the left of the composition, was on the trading route for those tackling the Black Sail, Sty Head and Burnmoor passes. Nature is celebrated and the view enlivened through Grimshaw's use of precise and carefully detailed observation. Miniscule brushwork details each blade of glass, foliage and autumnal leaves in the trees. Thin black paint serves to both outline and create shadow within the rocks, each one precisely depicted. Grimshaw's use of bright, vibrant passages of green, blue and pink further brings vitality to the scene. As Alexander Robertson comments, in relation to the Lake District paintings, '... everything is brightly coloured and seen in a clear light, presenting a dazzling landscape of a startling, Pre-Raphaelite kind. The handling is delicate and precise, the drawing sharp, the paintwork enamel-like in its hardness.'3Although undated, the present lot still provides an engaging time capsule and a further exploration of Grimshaw's practice, particularly his patience and skill in his early years.1 Jane Sellars (ed.), Atkinson Grimshaw - Painter of Moonlight, Harrogate, 2011, p. 33.2 Sellars, p. 34.3 Alexander Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, London, 1988, p. 22.