The Victorian painter John Atkinson Grimshaw (1863-93) developed an unusual talent for creating eerily atmospheric paintings. Born and based in Leeds, England, he initially absorbed (like many of his contemporaries) the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites. Their preciseness and compositional acumen appealed to Grimshaw, who had an eye for stillness and elements of sudden brutality in nature.
From the 1870s onwards he evinced a similarity to James Tissot, whose colourful depictions of ordinary scenes were much to his liking. His fame was established through townscapes wreathed in mystery, showing lone individuals in the dead of night walking along deserted streets or up abandoned country lanes. They are reminiscent of the best tradition of English ghost story-telling, as in the stories of M.R. James, where a hapless protagonist is haunted by something he can only spot from the corner of the retina.
In his earlier work, throughout the 1860s, Grimshaw liked to paint scenes from nature. These included depictions of dead birds, such as the bullfinch in our present work [1]. The artist tells us a story: the little body of the bird has dropped upside down, next to a branch bearing some red taxus, or yew, berries. Bullfinches tend to subsist on the flesh of different berries, such as haws and guilder rose berries [2]. Bullfinches do also sometimes partake of yew berries.
Interestingly, yew berries contain seeds that are poisonous. Most birds would normally know to stay away from the seeds, so it is unclear whether this particular bullfinch expired through ignorance or sheer bad luck. Or whether it was struck down by something else.
Nevertheless, it seems that the artist has conveyed a salutary warning: nature is cruel, but does provide the opportunity to observe beauty up close. This little painting therefore fits in very well as a Victorian morality tale. The painting also points the way to the more “mature” Grimshaw: the confrontation with nature and the forces within it that cannot be overcome by mere sentient beings.
________________
[1] There are other examples. For example, a small painting showing a dead linnet, kept today in the Leeds Art Gallery. Jane Sellars (ed), Atkinson Grimshaw. Painter of Moonlight, Harrogate 2011, p. 5.
[2]. Ian Newton, The diet and feeding habits of the Bullfinch in: Bird Study, Vol.7, no.1, March 1960, p.7(i)
From the 1870s onwards he evinced a similarity to James Tissot, whose colourful depictions of ordinary scenes were much to his liking. His fame was established through townscapes wreathed in mystery, showing lone individuals in the dead of night walking along deserted streets or up abandoned country lanes. They are reminiscent of the best tradition of English ghost story-telling, as in the stories of M.R. James, where a hapless protagonist is haunted by something he can only spot from the corner of the retina.
In his earlier work, throughout the 1860s, Grimshaw liked to paint scenes from nature. These included depictions of dead birds, such as the bullfinch in our present work [1]. The artist tells us a story: the little body of the bird has dropped upside down, next to a branch bearing some red taxus, or yew, berries. Bullfinches tend to subsist on the flesh of different berries, such as haws and guilder rose berries [2]. Bullfinches do also sometimes partake of yew berries.
Interestingly, yew berries contain seeds that are poisonous. Most birds would normally know to stay away from the seeds, so it is unclear whether this particular bullfinch expired through ignorance or sheer bad luck. Or whether it was struck down by something else.
Nevertheless, it seems that the artist has conveyed a salutary warning: nature is cruel, but does provide the opportunity to observe beauty up close. This little painting therefore fits in very well as a Victorian morality tale. The painting also points the way to the more “mature” Grimshaw: the confrontation with nature and the forces within it that cannot be overcome by mere sentient beings.
________________
[1] There are other examples. For example, a small painting showing a dead linnet, kept today in the Leeds Art Gallery. Jane Sellars (ed), Atkinson Grimshaw. Painter of Moonlight, Harrogate 2011, p. 5.
[2]. Ian Newton, The diet and feeding habits of the Bullfinch in: Bird Study, Vol.7, no.1, March 1960, p.7(i)
The bullfinch, 1863
Signed/dated lower left: J.A.Grimshaw/1863
Oil on board
15,5 x 16 cm
Provenance
Christie's London, auction 5 March 1993 (Fine Victorian Pictures, Drawings and Watercolours);Private collection, England;
Private collection, Netherlands
The Victorian painter John Atkinson Grimshaw (1863-93) developed an unusual talent for creating eerily atmospheric paintings. Born and based in Leeds, England, he initially absorbed (like many of his contemporaries) the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites. Their preciseness and compositional acumen appealed to Grimshaw, who had an eye for stillness and elements of sudden brutality in nature.
From the 1870s onwards he evinced a similarity to James Tissot, whose colourful depictions of ordinary scenes were much to his liking. His fame was established through townscapes wreathed in mystery, showing lone individuals in the dead of night walking along deserted streets or up abandoned country lanes. They are reminiscent of the best tradition of English ghost story-telling, as in the stories of M.R. James, where a hapless protagonist is haunted by something he can only spot from the corner of the retina.
In his earlier work, throughout the 1860s, Grimshaw liked to paint scenes from nature. These included depictions of dead birds, such as the bullfinch in our present work [1]. The artist tells us a story: the little body of the bird has dropped upside down, next to a branch bearing some red taxus, or yew, berries. Bullfinches tend to subsist on the flesh of different berries, such as haws and guilder rose berries [2]. Bullfinches do also sometimes partake of yew berries.
Interestingly, yew berries contain seeds that are poisonous. Most birds would normally know to stay away from the seeds, so it is unclear whether this particular bullfinch expired through ignorance or sheer bad luck. Or whether it was struck down by something else.
Nevertheless, it seems that the artist has conveyed a salutary warning: nature is cruel, but does provide the opportunity to observe beauty up close. This little painting therefore fits in very well as a Victorian morality tale. The painting also points the way to the more “mature” Grimshaw: the confrontation with nature and the forces within it that cannot be overcome by mere sentient beings.
________________
[1] There are other examples. For example, a small painting showing a dead linnet, kept today in the Leeds Art Gallery. Jane Sellars (ed), Atkinson Grimshaw. Painter of Moonlight, Harrogate 2011, p. 5.
[2]. Ian Newton, The diet and feeding habits of the Bullfinch in: Bird Study, Vol.7, no.1, March 1960, p.7(i)
From the 1870s onwards he evinced a similarity to James Tissot, whose colourful depictions of ordinary scenes were much to his liking. His fame was established through townscapes wreathed in mystery, showing lone individuals in the dead of night walking along deserted streets or up abandoned country lanes. They are reminiscent of the best tradition of English ghost story-telling, as in the stories of M.R. James, where a hapless protagonist is haunted by something he can only spot from the corner of the retina.
In his earlier work, throughout the 1860s, Grimshaw liked to paint scenes from nature. These included depictions of dead birds, such as the bullfinch in our present work [1]. The artist tells us a story: the little body of the bird has dropped upside down, next to a branch bearing some red taxus, or yew, berries. Bullfinches tend to subsist on the flesh of different berries, such as haws and guilder rose berries [2]. Bullfinches do also sometimes partake of yew berries.
Interestingly, yew berries contain seeds that are poisonous. Most birds would normally know to stay away from the seeds, so it is unclear whether this particular bullfinch expired through ignorance or sheer bad luck. Or whether it was struck down by something else.
Nevertheless, it seems that the artist has conveyed a salutary warning: nature is cruel, but does provide the opportunity to observe beauty up close. This little painting therefore fits in very well as a Victorian morality tale. The painting also points the way to the more “mature” Grimshaw: the confrontation with nature and the forces within it that cannot be overcome by mere sentient beings.
________________
[1] There are other examples. For example, a small painting showing a dead linnet, kept today in the Leeds Art Gallery. Jane Sellars (ed), Atkinson Grimshaw. Painter of Moonlight, Harrogate 2011, p. 5.
[2]. Ian Newton, The diet and feeding habits of the Bullfinch in: Bird Study, Vol.7, no.1, March 1960, p.7(i)
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