John Atkinson Grimshaw - Greenock Shipping

signed and dated l.r.: Atkinson Grimshaw 1881+
oil on canvas
48 by 76cm.; 19 by 30in.
ESTIMATE 200,000 - 300,000 GBP


By the end of the nineteenth century Glasgow had become known as the "Second City of the Empire", its shipping industry supporting and linking Britain's vast areas of jurisdiction throughout the globe. The town of Greenock, west from Glasgow at the mouth of the Clyde benefitted greatly by the expanse of its neighbour, becoming one of the busiest ports of Europe. In 1827 Loch Thom was constructed as a reservoir for the town with The Cut aqueduct,bringing water to power the heavy industry and in 1841 the Greenock Central railway station was built at Cathcart Street creating a fast route to Glasgow and linking the coast with the Clyde steamer services. By 1850 up to four hundred ships each year brought in sugar cane from the Caribbean for processing in Greenock's fourteen sugar refineries, which between them supplied half the British market. In 1870 Glasgow and Greenock were producing more than half of Britain's shipping tonnage and a quarter of all locomotives worldwide. Greenock was also a major port of embarkation for emigrants from Scotland to America and Canada.
Greenock is seen here in Grimshaw's evocative nocturne, lit by the diffused glow of moonlight that is characteristic of the artist's work but is also illuminated by golden gaslight that shines from the shop windows, street lamps and welcoming windows of the Anchor Inn. It has been raining and customers looking in the shop windows are sheltered beneath umbrellas whilst a loiterer is leaning against a wall of the inn under the meager protection of a projecting canopy. On the left a woman prepares to cross the road along which a four-wheeler has just passed. In the dock
are the tall masts of the ships with their intricate rigging creating dark patterns against the evening sky.

Grimshaw painted street scenes that are a truthful snapshot of contemporary life, albeit with a few architectural liberties for picturesque effect. To emphasise the poverty and hardship that was a feature of every Victorian city would have been unpopular with his affluent clients. Using moonlight and the warmth of the gas lamps to illuminate this scene of everyday life Grimshaw transformed the familiar; the half light giving the working dockside and its figures a fascinating mystery and ambiguity that is delightfully intriguing but not dour or sentimental.