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Lot Essay
Although Grimshaw is best known for his moonlit 'nocturnes', of ports and lanes (see lot 65), in the 1870s he produced a remarkable group of works celebrating the interiors and gardens he created at Knostrop Hall, a Jacobean manor house in Leeds and, in this case, Castle-by-the Sea, a holiday house he rented in the popular Yorkshire seaside resort of Scarborough. This series of pictures offers a fascinating insight into his home life and many feature members of his family and household as models. They express his understandable pride in the idyllic background to his life and work that he had created. By this period, 'the artist's house was not just an expression of material success. It was also seen as a measure of the owner's aesthetic sensibility and artistic credentials' (E. Ehrman in 'Artistic Interiors', Atkinson Grimshaw: Painter of Moonlight, Harrogate, 2011, p. 99).
Grimshaw took inspiration for the present work from William Blake’s poem A Cradle Song, a lullaby and celebration of motherly and divine love, in his Book of Innocence. The baby in the crib, although not seen, could easily have been his daughter Elaine, who was born in 1877 and would have been in her infancy when her father began the picture. The nurse is probably Miss Agnes Leefe, a former actress who joined the Grimshaw household around this time when she became governess to his children.
Grimshaw rented Castle-by-the-Sea as a retreat for his expanding family from around 1875 and swiftly made improvements to the house in the fashionable Aesthetic taste. He commissioned a grand new entrance and a large conservatory where he grew 'rare fruits.. ..and some plants where he obtained pigments.' He also constructed a new studio with large leaded windows partially shaded by a sun blind fixed across the lower section, as seen in the present picture. The monochrome floor-cloth painted to simulate mosaic overlaid with a Persian carpet features in other works, including The Chorale (Private Collection) which was painted at the same date.
The popularity of the Aesthetic movement is most evident in the objects that decorate the room and the eclectic contrast of Oriental porcelain, Georgian furniture and Renaissance metal-work, many of which feature in different arrangements in other works by Grimshaw. Blue and white china became a hallmark of the Aesthetic interior and both Rossetti and Whistler were early collectors in the 1870s. Some of Grimshaw’s own collection, seen here, included a Chinese 17th century jar flanked by slender 19th century vases and covers, as well as the 17th century dish and Kangxi tea-bowls and saucers visible on the demi-lune side table.
Grimshaw took inspiration for the present work from William Blake’s poem A Cradle Song, a lullaby and celebration of motherly and divine love, in his Book of Innocence. The baby in the crib, although not seen, could easily have been his daughter Elaine, who was born in 1877 and would have been in her infancy when her father began the picture. The nurse is probably Miss Agnes Leefe, a former actress who joined the Grimshaw household around this time when she became governess to his children.
Grimshaw rented Castle-by-the-Sea as a retreat for his expanding family from around 1875 and swiftly made improvements to the house in the fashionable Aesthetic taste. He commissioned a grand new entrance and a large conservatory where he grew 'rare fruits.. ..and some plants where he obtained pigments.' He also constructed a new studio with large leaded windows partially shaded by a sun blind fixed across the lower section, as seen in the present picture. The monochrome floor-cloth painted to simulate mosaic overlaid with a Persian carpet features in other works, including The Chorale (Private Collection) which was painted at the same date.
The popularity of the Aesthetic movement is most evident in the objects that decorate the room and the eclectic contrast of Oriental porcelain, Georgian furniture and Renaissance metal-work, many of which feature in different arrangements in other works by Grimshaw. Blue and white china became a hallmark of the Aesthetic interior and both Rossetti and Whistler were early collectors in the 1870s. Some of Grimshaw’s own collection, seen here, included a Chinese 17th century jar flanked by slender 19th century vases and covers, as well as the 17th century dish and Kangxi tea-bowls and saucers visible on the demi-lune side table.