Lane Scene at Night, John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1872
John Atkinson Grimshaw, portraitJohn Atkinson GrimshawBritish, 1836–1893

Lane Scene at Night

1872 · Drawing and Watercolor

Can I see it?

Yes, on view now

Where is “Lane Scene at Night” now? Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 223, Chicago. Yes, on view now. Checked September 29, 2026.

Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Room223

Closed· opens at 11:00 AM

On public display.

Checked
In this state since
Source
The museum

About the work

Moonlight floods through tangles of dark, crooked branches, casting deep shadows on the ground that crisscross tracks imprinted in the damp earth by wagon wheels. The moon is just out of view but fills the scene with a strikingly eerie, bright-green hue. In the middle distance, a single cart makes its way down the muddy road, evoking the Romantic trope of lone travelers.

John Atkinson Grimshaw has been hailed as “the painter of moonlight” precisely for moody, atmospheric works like this one. Self-taught, he began to paint in the 1850s while working as a clerk at the Great Northern Railway company in Leeds, England.

Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0

Details

Accession number
2024.123

What it shows

In the catalog

Sources

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In the same room · Gallery 223, Art Institute of Chicago

Museum page

On the same theme · Landscape

All works on the theme