John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893)

Grimshaw spent a great deal of time in Scarborough during the 1870s, and depicted the town and the surrounding landscape in oil and watercolour. The present painting illustrates Yew Court, Scalby, named after its distinctive row of yew trees. It was in the garden at Yew Court that Grimshaw painted The Rector’s Garden: Queen of the Lilies (1877, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston). At the time the painting was made Grimshaw was living in a house known as Castle-by-the-Sea in Scarborough rented from Thomas Jarvis, a successful brewer in Scarborough and a keen supporter of Grimshaw's work, and is generally credited with turning Grimshaw's work in a new direction and encouraging the artist to paint more moonlit scenes. A similar composition but with two figures and dated 1875 is at Scarborough Art Gallery (1875, oil on board, 18 x 28 ¼ in.) and a further version on card painted commissioned by Jarvis (1874, 8 ¼ x 17 ¼ in.) was sold in these Rooms on 16 June 2015 (lot 83).