John Atkinson Grimshaw

Sale: Sotheby's, Belgravia, March 9, 1976, lot 161, illustrated
Christopher Wood, London
Sale: Sotheby's, London, July 12, 2007, lot 1, illustrated
Acquired at the above sale

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work is in very good condition. The canvas has been lined using wax as an adhesive. The surface is stable. The paint layer is probably clean. There are no structural damages or restorations of any note, except for a couple of spots around the extreme edges. The work could certainly be hung in its current state.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Silhouetted against a luminous golden sky, John Atkinson Grimshaw meticulously renders an English street to evocatively convey an autumn evening in October Gold. In the foreground are densely painted tree trunks that frame the scene and support a tangled net of infinite branches, suggesting a delicate rustle from the remaining foliage that clings to them. Below lies the trampled ground, wet with muck and fallen leaves. Grimshaw delights in articulating every texture, sometimes mixing sand and dirt with his paint in order to further the convincing illusion of the scene.

October Gold is an iconic composition that showcases Grimshaw’s mastery of light and atmosphere. Unlike the artist’s works that depict the great cities and the fishing villages of Britain (such as Liverpool Quay by Moonlight, 1887, Tate, London; or Reflections on the Thames, Westminster, 1880, Leeds Museums and Galleries), there are no landmarks with which to situate the exact location of this place. The sense of mystery is enhanced by the atmospheric golden light flooding the scene, and the anonymous figure and cart who inhabits it. The Victorian audience had a strong appetite for such romantic intrigue and it was a prevalent theme in the novels, plays and poetry of the period. Grimshaw himself was inspired by the writings of William Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Percy Bysshe Shelley and in particular Alfred, Lord Tennyson. As Alexander Robertson points out, “a few lines from Tennyson’s Enoch Arden seem to demonstrate this most succinctly:

The climbing Street, the mill, the leafy lanes,
The peacock-yew tree and the lonely Hall,
The horse he drove, the boat he sold, the chill
November dawns and dewy glooming downs,
The gentle shower, the smell of drying leaves

(as quoted in Alexander Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, London, 1988, p. 86)

In his paintings, Grimshaw sought to contrast the manmade and the organic – opposing forces symbolic of an age of industrialization. In Grimshaw’s time, the natural world was being tamed, confined, and destroyed like never before. In October Gold, as in many of Grimshaw’s most compelling compositions, the notion of conclusion and decay is paramount, the end of the day when the sun sets, the end of the year as the trees are stripped of the leaves, and the end of the daily routine.