£2,000 - £3,000
ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN ATKINSON GRIMSHAW, 1836 - 1893, OIL ON CANVAS, CIRCA 1880/81
Titled ‘Thames by Moonlight’, not relined, held in gilt frame.
(sight 19.5cm x 29.5cm, frame 32.5cm x 43cm)
A striking view across the moonlit Thames towards St Paul’s Cathedral with tied up barges in the foreground.
Titled verso, in ink, on the canvas edge along with the characters ‘161 x 21’. This method of annotating, numbering and including the letter ‘x’ is consistent with other examples found on the autograph work of Atkinson Grimshaw.
In 1879 Grimshaw incurred heavy debts ‘having guaranteed a bill for a friend who then decamped and he spent the rest of his life trying to produce enough pictures to pay off that debt.” (P.149 European Painting & Sculpture 1770 - 1937 in the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. Despite increasing his output to almost 50 paintings a year, Atkinson Grimshaw was still trying to pay off the debt when he died.
Although not formally signed, the present work has the characteristics one would expect of Grimshaw and may be one of the numerous untraced works he created in London.
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