Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-93) led an intriguing life, abandoning his job in the Great Northern Railway Company to pursue painting full-time. This volume is the first comprehensive study of the classic English painter, covering the full scope of Grimshaw's career, from his early landscapes to the urban industrial scenes that became his hallmark. It explains and deconstructs in great depth the techniques of Grimshaw's art, and locates him in the context of Victorian art and society among such contemporaries as Alma-Tadema and Tissot.

Since many of Grimshaw's paintings are held in private collections, a large proportion of his work is reproduced here for the first time. This monograph signifies an important collection of his life's work as it spans his entire career to offer a thorough and sensitive insight into how his painting progressed and why, as well as bringing to light the various ways in which he influenced - and was influenced by - his contemporaries, both technically and psychologically.