John Atkinson Grimshaw

Private collection, UK, since circa 1950

Thence by descent to the present owner

In the paintings of his mature period Grimshaw became increasingly interested in painting ships and the sea and with this interest came a fascination with harbours and quaysides. On the one hand he focused on the great ports of London, Glasgow, Liverpool and Hull and on the other, he captured the more intimate harbours of the east coast of Yorkshire. In 1867 Grimshaw painted one of the first of his moonlit harbour scenes, Whitby Harbour by Moonlight (private collection) and throughout the 1870s and 1880s, the fishing town was a frequently recurring subject. Lights in Whitby Harbour was painted in 1882 during the most fertile period of his career.

Grimshaw only ever exhibited one dock scene at the Royal Academy, Salthouse Dock, Liverpool of 1885. Despite rarely exhibiting these quayside views, Grimshaw's paintings of harbours - especially Scarborough and Whitby - were immediately popular with collectors and quickly snapped up directly from the artist's studio. It was the mechanism of the ports and the role in the life of the towns which fascinated Grimshaw and explains why in all his paintings he invariably included various signs of activity, such as the people walking along the wet street silhouetted against the glow of the shop windows in the foreground of the present picture. The rigging of the sailing-boats, the figures making their way across Whitby Bridge which spans the River Esk and the nets hung up to dry in the foreground, further suggest signs of industry.  Rather than concentrating on the smoke and dirt of a busy port he chose a moonlit view and presented a beautifully detailed image. Pictures such as this appealed directly to the Victorian public's pride in their industrial achievements and explains Grimshaw's immense success as an artist.

The contrast of shadows, gas-light and brilliant, bright moonlight in the present picture is typical of Grimshaw's œuvre during the second half of his career. The artificial brightness of the light together with the blackness of the boats and the nets in the foreground recall characteristics of collotype photography that developed in the late 18^th century and which Grimshaw, as an artist, would have undoubtedly been aware of. Like James Tissot he was also fascinated by the intricacies of ship rigging and as the masts and ropes of the ship exemplify his attention to these specific details.   

'The 1870s were the period of Grimshaw's greatest success, with an increasingly popular local reputation, soon to spread to London...' (Alex Robertson, Atkinson Grimshaw, 1988, p. 35) In 1874 one of his pictures was accepted by the Hanging Committee of the Royal Academy for inclusion in the Summer Exhibition and regular sales of his paintings made him financially more stable than he had been previously. From 1876 he was able to rent a second home at Scarborough and it was on this rugged Yorkshire coast that he painted some of his most atmospheric nocturnes including the dramatic In Peril of 1879 (Leeds City Art Galleries) and the more tranquil Whitby from Scotch Head of 1878 (Richard Green Gallery) and The Lighthouse at Scarborough of 1877 (private collection). The similarity between Grimshaw's atmospheric views of the harbour at Whitby and those by the contemporary photographer Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, has often been noted. Grimshaw and Sutcliffe are not known to have been acquainted and it is more likely that the photographer was influenced by the painter rather than visa versa. 

The present view of Whitby was painted when Grimshaw knew the subject very well and had painted it from many viewpoints and under different weather and at different times of the day and year. He continued to be inspired by the bustle of the port in the evening when the moonlight cast shadows across the River Esk and the wet streets reflect the glow of both moonlight and gaslight.