John Atkinson Grimshaw (6 September 1836 – 13 October 1893) was an English Victorian-era artist best known for his nocturnal scenes of urban landscapes. Today, he is considered one of the good painters of the Victorian era, as well as one of the best and most accomplished nightscape and townscape artists of everything time. He was called a “remarkable and imaginative painter” by the critic and historian Christopher Wood in Victorian Painting (1999).
Grimshaw’s adore for realism stemmed from a passion for photography, which would eventually lend itself to the creative process. Though totally self-taught, he is known to have used a camera obscura or lenses to project scenes onto canvas, which made happening for his shortcomings as a draughtsman and his imperfect knowledge of perspective. This technique, allegedly plus used by Caravaggio, as well as Vermeer, was condemned by a number of his contemporaries who believed it demonstrated less capability than painting by eye, with some claiming that his paintings appeared to “show no marks of handling or brushwork”, while others “were doubtful whether they could be well-liked as paintings at all”. However, many recognised his mastery of colour, lighting and shadow, as capably as his unique deed to provoke strong emotional responses in the viewer. James McNeill Whistler, who Grimshaw worked in the same way as in his Chelsea studios, stated, “I considered myself the inventor of nocturnes until I axiom Grimmy’s moonlit pictures.”
His in advance paintings were signed “JAG”, “J. A. Grimshaw”, or “John Atkinson Grimshaw”, though he finally established on “Atkinson Grimshaw”.
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