The Artist's Road Painting the World's Beautiful Places

John Atkinson Grimshaw's Nocturnes

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

A Moonlit Lane with Two Lovers by a Gate
John Atkinson Grimshaw

"I considered myself the inventor of nocturnes

until I saw Grimmy's moonlit pictures."

     - James Abbott McNeill Whistler

   Although paintings of nighttime scenes are to be found throughout art history, it was J.A.M. Whistler (1834-1903) who became famous for his "moonlights"—a term he initially called his night paintings. Whistler also popularized the title, "Nocturne" giving credit to his patron, Frederick Leyland, an amateur musician, writing, "I say I can't thank you too much for the name 'Nocturne' as a title for my moonlights! You have no idea what an irritation it proves to the critics and consequent pleasure to me—besides it is really so charming and does so poetically say all that I want to say and no more than I wish!" - from the book by Ronald Anderson and Anne Koval, James McNeill Whistler:  Beyond the Myth.

   But Whistler himself bowed to Leeds-born artist, John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893), writing, "I considered myself the inventor of nocturnes until I saw Grimmy's moonlit pictures."  (Victorian Painting by Lionel Lambourne)

   Grimshaw was a self-taught painter, strongly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and their vivid representational work. He left his stable employment as a clerk with the Great Northern Railway at the age of 24 in order to pursue his art full-time. He became known for his ability to capture scenes under diverse light sources—street-lit urban scenes and twilight landscapes. He also painted images based on the subjects of Tennyson and Longfellow poems and named his children after Tennyson characters.

   Grimshaw was born in Leeds and died in Leeds, from tuberculosis at the age of 57. He and his wife, Frances, had sixteen children. Only six survived into adulthood, four of them becoming artists. Here are a few of John Atkinson Grimshaw's nighttime paintings.

Boars Lane, Leeds, by Lamplight 

Moonlight on the Lake, Roundhay Park, Leeds

Tree Shadows on the Park Wall, Roundhay Park, Leeds