JOHN ATKINSON GRIMSHAW | OCTOBER AFTERGLOW

Private collection;

Sotheby's, London, 13 November 2012, lot 9, where purchased by the present owner

One in a series of autumnal works painted by John Atkinson Grimshaw in the 1870s and 1880s, October Afterglow is typical of the artist in style and palette, combining the mood of the Romantic Poets with the gothic stillness of Victorian landscape painting. Populated by one, solitary figure, a housemaid dressed in her cap and apron, she leaves through the gate of a manor house onto an otherwise deserted country lane that has been flooded with decaying leaves and marked by the carts and carriages of the day. The bustle of the day has passed, and the hushed suburban lanes are left to bask in the slow gloaming of the evening.

Far from the industrial scenes set in cities such as London, Liverpool and Glasgow, Grimshaw’s mossy lanes, often inspired by Yorkshire, celebrate the peaceful solitude of the countryside, while simultaneously paying homage to England’s architectural heritage, symbolised by the ageing country house. The unnamed manor and the faceless maid contribute to the picture’s sense of romantic intrigue, a prevalent theme in the novels, plays and poetry of the age, and Grimshaw sought to imbue the leaf-carpeted street with the same Romantic ideals of the majesty of nature and the passing of time.

A hauntingly silent manor house is synonymous with Victorian literature, often depicted as Gothic and maliciously still. However, Grimshaw’s hall is illuminated from within and bathes in the soft glow of evening light, associating it with the comforts of home and a warm hearth as opposed to the creaking mansions of Gothic romances. Employing a fiery palette of ochres, russets and deep browns, framed by the slender darkness of the leafless trees, October Afterglow evokes the classic tropes of the Victorian period while capturing the quiet splendour of an anonymous Autumn evening.