Known for his city night-scenes and landscapes, John Atkinson Grimshaw was a Victorian artist described by British art historian Christopher Wood as a "remarkable and imaginative painter".
Hailing from Leeds in England, Grimshaw's first job was as a clerk for Great Northern Railway.
Much to the dismay of his parents, he left the job at age 24 to pursue a career as a painter.
John Atkinson Grimshaw and the Great Northern Railway
Leaving a steady job with a growing industry must have seemed foolhardy, but Grimshaw's passion and talent for art were all he needed to make a success of his life.
Exhibiting for the first time just a year later under the patronage of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, he showed paintings of birds, fruit, and blossom.
It wasn't until the 1870s that his career really took off.
Influenced primarily by the Pre-Raphaelites, he painted landscapes with precise use of colour and lighting, often focusing on the changing seasons or the weather to bring vivid detail and realism to his work.
But it is the moonlit views of cities and suburban streets, of Docklands in London, Hull, Liverpool, and Glasgow that he is best remembered for.
paintings of dampened gas-lit streets and misty waterfronts conveyed an eerie warmth as well as alienation in the urban scene
Sharply focused, almost photographic, Grimshaw poetically applied the tradition of rural moonlit scenes to the city, with its rain puddles, mists, and the smoky fog of late Victorian industrial England.
Grimshaw evokes the very feeling of chill in the night air or the damp of mists at dawn's early light.
John Atkinson Grimshaw was the Painter of Moonlight.
London Bridge - Night by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1884Park Row, Leeds by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1882Westminster Bridge by Moonlight by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1880Liverpool Quay by Moonlight by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1887The Gossips, Bonchurch, Isle of Wight by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1880Hull Docks at Night by John Atkinson GrimshawEvening Scene by the Docks, Hull by John Atkinson GrimshawBurning Off, a Fishing Boat at Scarborough by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1877On the Clyde, Glasgow by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1879Lights in the Harbour, Scarborough by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1879Moonlight on Lake by John Atkinson GrimshawLiverpool Docks attributed to John Atkinson GrimshawBonchurch, the Isle of Wight by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1880Night Vigil by John Atkinson GrimshawLiverpool from Wapping by John A Grimshaw, 1875A moonlit street after rain by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1881Blackman Street, Borough, London by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1885Hampstead by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1881Glasgow, Saturday Night by John Atkinson GrimshawA Moonlit Landscape by John Atkinson GrimshawHumber Docks Hull, John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1884A Yorkshire Home by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1878Nightfall down the Thames by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1880Street after the Rain in the Moonlight by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1881Glasgow Docks by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1881The Thames by Moonlight with Southwark Bridge, London by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1884The Old Hall Under Moonlight by John Atkinson GrimshawFigure Overlooking Waterloo Lake, Rounday Park, Leeds by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1872Old Chelsea by John Atkinson GrimshawNear Hackness, a moonlit scene with pine trees by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1875Canny Glasgow by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1887Heath Street, Hampstead by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1882Street after the Rain in the Moonlight by John Atkinson GrimshawWhitby by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1878Under the Moonbeams by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1887The Broomielaw Glasgow by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1889Forge Valley, near Scarborough by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1875Whitby, from the East Side by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1877Heaven's Lamp by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1886Lovers in a Wood by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1873The Lovers by John Atkinson GrimshawBriggate, Leeds by John Atkinson GrimshawA moonlit country road by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1877Reflections on the Thames, Westminster by Grimshaw, John Atkinson, 1879The Tryst by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1886At the Park Gate by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1878Full Moon behind Cirrus Cloud from the Rounday Park Castle Battlements by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1872Home Again by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1877November by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1879Scarborough by Moonlight by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1876Boar Lane, Leeds by Lamplight by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1881Whitby Harbor by Moonlight by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1862Moonlight, Wharfedale by John Atkinson GrimshawSilver Moonlight by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1880London Bridge - Half Tide by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1884A Moonlit Evening by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1880Harbor Scene by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1878Greenwich, Half Tide by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1884The Custom House, Liverpool, Looking South by John Atkinson Grimshaw , 1890Gloucester Docks by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1890Thames Moonlight by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1880Nightfall down the Thames by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1880Southwark Bridge and St. Paul's by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1883A Moonlit Lane by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1874
