John Atkinson Grimshaw (Leeds 1836-1893)

One of the most recognisable subjects created by Grimshaw is of a quiet lane flanked by high walls, trees, a partly hidden mansion, and a figure, or two, usually female, positioned somewhere along a leaf strewn road, highlighting the peaceful stillness of the moment. The detail is remarkable in the mass of intricate tracery of branches silhouetted against the bold, moonlit sky, masterfully reflected in the windows of the house and in the small pools of water in the lane.

The compositional motif was first created in the early 1870s, when Grimshaw and his family had moved to Knostrop Hall, a seventeenth-century manor house on the River Aire at the eastern edge of Leeds. The house in the present painting is very similar in architectural details to that of Knostrop Hall, particularly in the gabling, entrance porch and gateposts surmounted with spherical ornaments, but these have been placed in the roadside wall, rather than at the entrance to a sweeping circular driveway as was the case at Knostrop.