Day Dreams

Although Grimshaw is best known for his moonlit 'nocturnes' of docks and quiet lanes, in the 1870s he produced a remarkable group of works celebrating the interiors and gardens of his home 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 the artist’s domestic 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).

The room appears similar to that depicted in A Cradle Song (1878), with its low wooden shelf displaying blue and white porcelain, screened-over upper windows, and mosaic-style floor border. A Cradle Song was known to have been painted at Castle-by-the Sea, and it seems likely that the present work was as well, with the decorative arts and furniture filling the room rearranged. 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 and layered Aesthetic style. 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 distinctive floor-cloth, painted to simulate mosaic overlaid with a Persian carpet, features in other works as well, including The Chorale (Private collection) which was painted around the same date.

The model in the present picture is Agnes Leefe, who was an actress at the Leeds Grand Theatre. She appears as the model for a significant number of paintings in Grimshaw’s oeuvre, and was an accepted part of the Grimshaw household as both a governess and as the artist’s model. Toward the end of her life, she was more a ward, known by the nickname ‘Little Orphan Annie’, and she ultimately died at a young age of consumption, cared for by Grimshaw’s wife, Frances Theodosia, at their home in Leeds. Perhaps because of her work as an actress Leefe was the only model for Grimshaw’s nudes, and given the latent sensuality in the present work she is an unsurprising choice as the model here as well. Reclining on a camelback sofa draped with luxurious furs and lace, the model’s frank gaze and open body language may hint at a more complex relationship with the artist than was known at the time.

The popularity of the Aesthetic movement is most evident in the eclectic and carefully chosen objects that decorate the room. Many of the decorative elements, from Oriental porcelain, to Indian fabrics, and contemporary prints and drawings, can also be seen in different arrangements in other works by Grimshaw. Blue and white china became a hallmark of Aesthetic interiors 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. The Japanese fans resting on the windowsill were also popular props for the artist during this period. The room’s fashionable styling also speaks to the financial success and worldliness of Grimshaw at this point in his career.