Painting set to sell for £100,000

Published on Thursday 10 March 2011 14:24


A Victorian painting of Liverpool docks which has hung in a farmhouse dining room for almost 50 years is expected to fetch more than £100,000 when it goes to auction this month.


The oil on canvas by John Atkinson Grimshaw was bought for just £100 in the 1960s.

Another Grimshaw sold by the same auction house in Alnwick, Northumberland, last October made £185,000 and the publicity led the vendor of this picture, a farmer from the North of England who wishes to remain anonymous, to come forward.

Both paintings feature Liverpool Docks and Grimshaw, who started his working life as a railway clerk before turning to art, became famous for his canvases of industrial areas.

His work rarely comes on the market, so the previous sale generated much interest, and a high price.

Auctioneer Jim Railton said: "The international publicity that painting attracted resulted in a farmer coming forward with this latest work.

"He inherited it from his father, who had bought it for £100 in the 1960s and it has remained hanging in the dining room of their farmhouse ever since.

"It is a quality picture painted by a man who has mastered his craft. One can almost feel the damp chill of the evening."

He added: "It is attracting a lot of interest. Appreciation of Grimshaw's work is very high and I expect it to make well over £100,000 on the day."

The sale at the Old Narrowgate Salerooms takes place on March 19.

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