John Atkinson Grimshaw, September 6, 1836 – October 31, 1893, was an English painter of landscapes, town views, dockyards, and figure subjects. Born in Leeds, he worked as a clerk for the Great Northern Railway before leaving that employment in 1861 to become an artist. He was self-taught and began exhibiting in Leeds in 1862.
Grimshaw exhibited under the patronage of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society and later showed at the Royal Academy and the Grosvenor Gallery. He lived and worked in Leeds, maintained a second home in Scarborough during the 1870s, and painted subjects in Leeds, London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Hull, Scarborough, and Whitby. His sons Arthur and Louis, and two other children, also became painters.
His work is held by Leeds Art Gallery, which has the largest public collection of his work, as well as the Ashmolean Museum, Scarborough Art Gallery, Laing Art Gallery, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Photograph of John Atkinson Grimshaw, before 1893
Yew Court, Scalby, near Scarborough, 1875
Oil on board, 18.1 × 28.3 in
Scarborough Art Gallery, Scarborough
Liverpool from Wapping, c 1875
Oil on canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Midsummer Night/Iris, 1876
Oil on canvas, 24 × 35.8 in
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, on long-term loan
In Peril/The Harbour Flare, 1879
Oil on canvas, 34 × 49 in
Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds
November, 1879
Oil on canvas, 30 × 24.8 in
Private Collection
Reflections on the Thames, Westminster, 1880
Oil on canvas, 30 × 50 in
Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds
Greenock Shipping, 1881
Oil on canvas, 20 × 30 in
Private Collection
![John Atkinson Grimshaw, View of Southwark Bridge at Night, 1882 Oil on panel, 11.5 × 19.5 in Ashmolean Museum, Oxford](https://danieljlieberman.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/09-view-of-southwark-bridge-at-night.jpg "Grimshaw, John Atkinson, 1836aEUR"1893; View of Southwark Bridge at Night")
View of Southwark Bridge at Night, 1882
Oil on panel, 11.5 × 19.5 in
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
A Yorkshire Road, November, 1886
Oil on canvas, 30.1 x 25 in
Private Collection
A Wet Road, Knostrop, Yorkshire, 1886
Oil on canvas, 30 x 25.1 in
Private Collection
Under the Beeches, 1892
Oil on canvas, 11.9 x 17.9 in
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Glasgow, Saturday Night, Undated
Oil on canvas, 24 x 36 in
Private Collection
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