[BITList] Sotheby's to Sell "The Old Dealer" by CharlesSpencelayh-Artist's Masterpiece

[HUGH]

John,

A virtuoso display of mind-boggling detail.  I checked the link below the picture and found a list of details of the paintings to be sold.  One caught my eye, and so did an error in it.

Paintings by John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893) have performed extremely well at Sotheby's auctions over the last five years. The December sale will offer Princes Dock, Hull with an estimate of £200,000-300,000. The industrial cities of Britain and their commercial growth were the source of immense inspiration for Grimshaw, who celebrated the age of industry, commerce and conspicuous wealth with a series of paintings in which moonlight and lamplight contrast with one another, and skeletal trees or ship's rigging are interchangeable. In the present picture of the docks at Greenock on the Clyde, a horse-drawn omnibus makes its way along the wet cobbled road with passengers sitting atop, whilst a hanson stops to await a more affluent customer. The imposing three-domed building visible through the hazy evening fog was the Dock Offices, now Hull Maritime Museum, and the monument is that of William Wilberforce, the Yorkshire MP and anti-slavery campaigner. Grimshaw's growing popularity with art collectors in the northern urban cities encouraged him to paint scenes such as this. In recording the contemporary port's role within Victorian life, they appealed directly to Victorian pride and energy. 


Grimshaw did paint in Greenock, and I know the painting referred to.

Hugh.
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