John Atkinson Grmshaw'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-b…