Signed and dated l.l.: W.Greaves/1872

Oil on canvas, 20 by 24 ins (51 by 61 cm)

Provenance: purchased by Philip H.Rosenbach from William Marchant, The Goupil Gallery, at Walter Greaves?s 1911 exhibition; the Rosenbach Museum and Library, Philadelphia, deaccessioned in 2010

From a family of Thames boatmen, Greaves, a totally untrained artist, holds a central place in the creation of some of most important paintings in Western art from the later nineteenth century. In 1863 he had met James Abbott McNeill Whistler, becoming his studio assistant, mixing his paints, preparing his canvases and taking him out at night on his river boat to observe parts of the London river Greaves knew so well. The result of these trips were Whistler?s great nocturnes, including Nocturne: Blue and Gold, Old Battersea Bridge (1871-77) and Nocturne in Blue and Silver (1872-78). Yet by the end of the century Whistler had dropped Greaves. When in 1911 (the date the present work was bought) William Marchant launched a major exhibition at the Goupil Gallery rediscovering Greaves and suggesting that there was a far more significant mutual influence between the two artists, Whistler?s biographer Joseph Pennells accused Greaves of plagiarism, condemning his art once again to obscurity. Despite widespread support from artists such as Augustus John, Walter Sickert and William Nicholson he was to die penniless in 1830. Today, although Greaves?s dating remains notoriously unreliable (he appears to have guessed when he painted many of his pictures); his reputation is slowly being rebuilt. His own nocturnes, of which the present painting is a fine example, can at their best show an inspiration and originality that are close to those by his master and are a perfect portrayal of the tones and shades of a river that Greaves knew better than any artist of his age.

The present work is to be shown in Three Centuries of British Art at the Shepherd and Derom Galleries, New York in late September and October 2011. For more information also contact the gallery:

Shepherd and Derom Galleries, 58 East 79th Street, New York, NY 10075

Tel: 212-861-4050 - Fax: 212-772-1314

http://www.shepherdgallery.com

A fully illustrated catalogue will also be available from early September.