Chasing the Gloaming

The lifetime’s work of Victorian ‘Painter of Moonlight’ John Atkinson Grimshaw led to a photographic investigation and re-examination of the ‘self-taught Pre-Raphaelite’ painters oeuvre. Dracup looked back through the eyes of a contemporary photographer and re-connected Grimshaw’s artistic alignment with photography’s invention, development and early dissemination. This photographic re-alignment led her back to Grimshaw’s northern landscapes and into the studio in response to the more formal qualities of his lesser-known still life works. Her historical research led her to the photographic collections at the National Media Museum (Insight) and to other institutional archives.