Sonia Solicari
“People have often seen John Atkinson Grimshaw as a nostalgic and sentimental painter because he produced so many pictures of moonlit country lanes and nocturnal street scenes.
I think this painting, however, is more about modernity and he’s placing the moon this time in the context of urban developments in late 19th-century London.
There are three types of illumination here; as well as the moon, there’s the orange gaslight glow of Big Ben and the very bright electric lights that had recently been installed along the Embankment.
There has been some new thinking recently, too, about the figures seen here. The female in the foreground of the painting has always been viewed as a prostitute; they were traditionally depicted at that time as women often in difficult circumstances staring at the Thames, possibly contemplating suicide.
But now we believe that she is, in fact, a respectable woman who is able to go out on her own at night because of the improvements made in street lighting. All of a sudden this area, which had previously been shady and dangerous, became accessible and safe to all.
This is still a hot topic today, of course. People like to feel safe in towns at night and many get upset when their council threatens to turn the streetlights off. We’re used to the freedom that electric lighting affords us.
Atkinson Grimshaw’s earlier works were very pre-Raphaelite in style and focused on natural themes but he progressed from those very intricate works to pictures that were more about creating a mood or emotion.
He took some artistic licence, too. Some of the lonely country lanes and alleyways he depicted were amalgamations of different places he knew.
Even if they don’t actually know him by name, a lot of people are familiar with Atkinson Grimshaw’s work because he has been so widely reproduced on cards and posters over the years.
I also think it helps that Atkinson Grimshaw is still something of a mysterious figure. Most of what we know about the artist is from how other people described him and his work.
A lot of his work can be enigmatic, too. There are no set stories to these pictures of single female figures walking down rain-lashed streets so we can put our narrative to his work.
The work of other painters at the time could be quite prescriptive; you often knew what the story was and who the characters were. With Atkinson Grimshaw, it’s up to you to decide.”
Atkinson Grimshaw: Painter of Moonlight runs at the Guildhall Art Gallery, London, until 15 January 2012
Sonia Solicari is the principal curator at the Guildhall Art Gallery
“People have often seen John Atkinson Grimshaw as a nostalgic and sentimental painter because he produced so many pictures of moonlit country lanes and nocturnal street scenes.
I think this painting, however, is more about modernity and he’s placing the moon this time in the context of urban developments in late 19th-century London.
There are three types of illumination here; as well as the moon, there’s the orange gaslight glow of Big Ben and the very bright electric lights that had recently been installed along the Embankment.
There has been some new thinking recently, too, about the figures seen here. The female in the foreground of the painting has always been viewed as a prostitute; they were traditionally depicted at that time as women often in difficult circumstances staring at the Thames, possibly contemplating suicide.
But now we believe that she is, in fact, a respectable woman who is able to go out on her own at night because of the improvements made in street lighting. All of a sudden this area, which had previously been shady and dangerous, became accessible and safe to all.
This is still a hot topic today, of course. People like to feel safe in towns at night and many get upset when their council threatens to turn the streetlights off. We’re used to the freedom that electric lighting affords us.
Atkinson Grimshaw’s earlier works were very pre-Raphaelite in style and focused on natural themes but he progressed from those very intricate works to pictures that were more about creating a mood or emotion.
He took some artistic licence, too. Some of the lonely country lanes and alleyways he depicted were amalgamations of different places he knew.
Even if they don’t actually know him by name, a lot of people are familiar with Atkinson Grimshaw’s work because he has been so widely reproduced on cards and posters over the years.
I also think it helps that Atkinson Grimshaw is still something of a mysterious figure. Most of what we know about the artist is from how other people described him and his work.
A lot of his work can be enigmatic, too. There are no set stories to these pictures of single female figures walking down rain-lashed streets so we can put our narrative to his work.
The work of other painters at the time could be quite prescriptive; you often knew what the story was and who the characters were. With Atkinson Grimshaw, it’s up to you to decide.”
Atkinson Grimshaw: Painter of Moonlight runs at the Guildhall Art Gallery, London, until 15 January 2012
Sonia Solicari is the principal curator at the Guildhall Art Gallery