THREE pictures by the Leeds artist John Atkinson Grimshaw were on exhibition at Ripley Castle, near Harrogate, yesterday as part of a valuation day by the Christie’s auction house.
Grimshaw’s The Last Gleam (estimate £180,000 to £250,000), The Gossips, Bonchurch, the Isle of White ((£120,000 to £180,000) and In the Golden Gloaming (£120,000 to £180,000) are among highlights from the forthcoming summer auctions of British art in London.
The Christie’s British Art Week in June will include the sale of an exceptional work by JMW Turner (1775-1851). The Blue Rigi is said to be the most important watercolour to appear at auction for over 50 years. It is expected to sell for in excess of £2m, which would make it the most expensive watercolour to be sold at auction.
Also on show at Ripley Castle, the home of Sir Thomas and Lady Ingilby, was a watercolour of Rievaulx Abbey, near Helmsley in North Yorkshire, by JS Cotman, with an estimate of £12,000 to £18,000 and The Mount Cookham Dene by Sir Stanley Spencer, which is expected to realise up to £300,000.
John Atkinson Grimshaw, the son of a policeman, was born in Leeds in 1836. His parents were strict Baptists and his mother disapproved of his interest in painting. On one occasion she destroyed all his paints.
Grimshaw – later known for his paintings of nighttime scenes, including Whitby Harbour by Moonlight – became a clerk with the Great Northern Railway office in Leeds in 1851 but left in 1861 to become a full-time painter.

Posted: 03|31|06 at 12:40 pm. Filed under: UK News.