Footnotes

• The present lot is a fasinating rediscovery and joins other known depictions of the same scene, such as The Seven Arches, Adel, Leeds. The harmonious affect of Seven Arches, Adel Woods is redolent of the nature-loving depictions associated with Grimshaw’s early years as a professional artist and his growing attachment to the fundamental principles of the Pre-Raphaelites.
  
  Adel woods was an area where the newly married artist would often take walks, collecting artefacts and organic material for later study. The largely unspoiled woodland setting became the subject of some of Grimshaw’s earliest landscapes and is represented in the present lot with the intimate reverence for nature that would characterise his entire career.
  
  Suffused with a strong attention to detail and a heightened sense of colour, the present lot shows the artist coming to terms with the Pre-Raphaelite style of landscape painting that can be seen with increased confidence in later depictions such as Stepping Stones, Bolton Abbey (1868).
  
  Literature:
  Christopher Wood & Richard Green An exhibition of paintings arranged by Richard Green and Christopher Wood , November 7th-23rd, 1990.
  
  We are extremely grateful to Alexander Robertson, who has examined the present lot, and comments:
  
  'The View of Adel is a very interesting transitional picture where Grimshaw seems interested in building up a surface pattern rather than giving the scene any atmosphere. One might almost compare this to Cotman’s Greta period watercolours. I don’t think I have seen another picture by Grimshaw done in quite the same way. But perhaps it is not surprising that the artist is still experimenting in picture making at this early date in his career.'

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Category: Fine Art / 19th Century Paintings

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