John Atkinson Grimshaw

Sotheby's, London, 13 December 1989, lot 82;
Richard Green, London, 1989;
Private collection, North America;
Richard Green, London, 1996;
Private collection, North America;
Richard Green, London, 1998;
Sotheby's, London, 10 November 1999, lot 142;
Private collection

The canvas has been lined. There is a minor spot of craquelure in the moon and the surface slightly dirty with some gilt frame paint along top edge; otherwise the work appears in good overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals an opaque varnish which makes the surface difficult to read conclusively. There may be some areas or retouching mainly in the sky. Held in a gilt plaster frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

‘… and when the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanile, and the warehouses are palaces in the night, and the whole city hangs in the heavens, fairy-land is before us.’ (James McNeil Whistler, Ten O’clock Lecture, 1885)

In many pictures by John Atkinson Grimshaw, the silver orb of a full-moon is the pervading presence of an otherwise man-made scene. Here it shines above the still waters of the Pool and city of London, radiating light over the great industrial centre of Britain. In the foreground two barges laden with coal are hauled by a steam-tug and steered by oarsmen towards the docks on the north bank. The industry of mankind is represented by the warehouses, merchant ships and barges, and by the span of Old London Bridge the artery of commerce that brought trade into and out of the city. When Grimshaw painted The Pool and London Bridge at Night the bridge was only fifty years old, having been completed by Sir John Rennie in 1831 according to his father’s design. It is this quadruple-spanned structure that was bought and transported stone by stone to Lake Havasu City in Arizona in 1971 by the oil and chainsaw magnate Robert McCulloch when it was sold by the British Government.

The Pool of London was originally defined as the stretch of the Thames river between Billingsgate and the City of London, where ships were required to allow inspection of their imported cargoes by Customs Officers from Customs House, the large classical edifice visible at the right side of Grimshaw’s picture. London Bridge formed a barrier that prevented tall-ships progressing further upriver, marking the boundary of the Pool and it was the only crossing point for a long stretch of the river; Tower Bridge was not completed until a decade after Grimshaw's picture was painted. In the nineteenth century, more than two-thirds of the cargoes brought into the docks of the Pool of London were from colliers meeting the increased demand for coal from the expanding city. In Grimshaw’s painting the coal-barges are the human activity within an otherwise motionless scene.

Grimshaw’s London views, first painted in the early 1880s, may be regarded as pictorial counterparts to the descriptions of the new industrialised city by Charles Dickens whilst the romantic atmosphere has been compared to Tennyson and Keats’ poetry. Few other artists have been able to capture the chill of evening light, the stillness on a sleeping city and the mystery of moonlight and even Whistler wrote: ‘I considered myself the inventor of Nocturnes until I saw Grimmy’s moonlit pictures’.