Sunday 16 April 2017

The streets of Jack the Ripper


Someone just mentioned that they would like to take an John Atkinson Grimshaw painting on a desert island with them to remind them of how much they loved the English weather. That reminded me that I once had a print of this painting on my wall as a kid, and that I too love some aspects of the English climate which foreigners find depressing.

I was about to say that there could be no better paintings for the covers of Sherlock Holmes stories, then I remembered that they have been used for just that. I think this was how I was introduced to Atkinson Grimshaw as a kid.

We are not very far away from the Victorian era. My grandparents were Victorians and my father missed being one by six years - the same number that I missed being a war baby. I can almost smell that wet street.

Still, I must not get ahead of myself. I have the whole of the Summer to look forward to before the damp Autumn nights return, but I can still look forward to them with relish.

14 comments:

  1. Unusual for a 'Spring' baby to prefer the Autumn....and I do hope we have a Summer to look forward to this year...Happy Easter.

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    1. I don't prefer the Autumn - I like all the Seasons, but not the bit of Winter between January and March.

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    2. ...unless it is fresh snow...

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  2. Reminds me of Venice on a foggy night.
    Greetings Maria x

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    1. Yes, I would like to stay in Venice in the Winter, so long as we had a cosy apartment.

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  3. I think i would love the English weather, our's is so boring.

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    1. Yes, I do like the seasons to change, but it is probably also good to be able to depend on the weather for a barbecue? We only started having barbecues about 25 years ago. Before then it was picnics...

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  4. I love Atkinson Grimshaw! His moonlit paintings are wonderful. We had one in Harrogate Public Library and I remember going to the Reference Library to find out more about him. I think it was his father who threw his paints on the fire as he thought painting wasn't a suitable occupation for his son.

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    1. Really? I know nothing about him other than he was born in Leeds.

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  5. I gooled him and a new wonderful world opened to me.

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  6. I like the urban glow, top right.

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    1. He specialised in moonlight as I'm sure you know.

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