ABBEY HOUSE MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat: 12 – 5pm
Sun: 10am – 5pm
Last admission: 4.30pm
Address
Abbey Walk
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
Ticket Provider
ABBEY HOUSE MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat: 12 – 5pm
Sun: 10am – 5pm
Last admission: 4.30pm
Address
Abbey Walk
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
Ticket Provider
LEEDS ART GALLERY
Opening Hours
Mon: Closed
Tues -Sat: 10am – 5pm
Sun: 11am – 3pm
Address
The Headrow
Leeds
LS1 3AA
LEEDS CITY MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed (11am – 5pm on bank holidays)
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat & Sun: 11am – 5pm
Address
Leeds City Museum
Millennium Square
Leeds
LS2 8BH
Ticket Provider
LEEDS DISCOVERY CENTRE
Opening Hours
Visits by appointment/special event only.
Free public store tours are now available by booking in advance. Please call or email us.
Address
Leeds Discovery Centre
Off Carlisle Road
Leeds
LS10 1LB
LEEDS INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: Closed (10am – 5pm on bank holiday Mondays)
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat – Sun: 12 – 5pm
Last admission one hour before closing.
Address
Canal Road
Leeds
LS12 2QF
KIRKSTALL ABBEY
Opening Hours
Mon: closed (10am – 4pm on bank holidays)
Tues – Sun: 10am – 4pm
Last admission: 3.30pm
Address
Abbey Road
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
Ticket Provider
LOTHERTON
Opening Hours
Open Daily
Estate opens: 8am
Hall: Closed
Wildlife World: 10am – 4pm
Estate closes: 7pm
Last entry 45 mins before estate closing time
TEMPLE NEWSAM
Opening Hours
House: Tues – Sun: 10.30am – 5pm
Home Farm: Tues – Sun: 10am – 4pm
Last entry 45 minutes before
THWAITE WATERMILL
Opening Hours
Mon – Fri: closed (open 10am – 4pm during school holidays)
Sat – Sun: 12 – 4pm
Last admission: 3pm
Address
Thwaite Lane
Stourton
Leeds
LS10 1RP
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‘Iris’ (1886) by John Atkinson Grimshaw
Collections, Fine Art‘Iris’ – John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1886
Local historian Eveleigh Bradford explores one of Atkinson Grimshaw’s most entrancing paintings, which chimes well with the theme of Fairy Tales and Fantasy, the subject of the new exhibition at Abbey House.
People love to believe that the graceful figure hovering on her magical iridescent wings is a fairy – she’s even called that on the postcard produced by the Gallery itself – but the artist himself tells another story.
On the back of the picture he wrote this quotation, from an ‘Old Book’: ‘Now Iris being chief messenger unto/ Juno was sent on her Autumn errand to wither ye flowers and leaves/ On coming atte ye Water Lily, being/ enamoured ye beauty thereof, She/ did hesitate/ and was changed into a rainbow for her disobedience’.
The painting is a serious classical subject then rather than a frivolous fairy story; a good excuse for painting a beautiful young nude, who could respectably grace the walls of any businessman’s mansion.
John Atkinson Grimshaw, late 19th Century
Grimshaw painted this picture in 1886 when he was 50 years old, though a few earlier versions exist. The picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy that year, the last time his work was shown there. It came into the possession of a certain Walter Battle – a Leeds financier and local councillor – who owned a large collection of Grimshaw’s pictures, many of them probably acquired in lieu of payment of Grimshaw’s ongoing debts, which dogged him up to his death in 1893.
‘Iris’ is a showpiece for Grimshaw’s skills, in its glowing kaleidoscopic colour effects and rich autumnal tones, as well as the mystery and grace of the central figure. Haloed in brilliant gold, the figure curves as if in a rainbow arc, revealed through the sheerest drapery, yet modestly shielded by her arms. The model was probably Grimshaw’s young assistant, Agnes Leefe, who was to die of tuberculosis just four years after this painting. The picture captures the autumn mood, a favourite of Grimshaw’s: golden light, bare trees, soft mists, glimmering reflections, all providing mystery and scope for the imagination.
In 1897, four years after Grimshaw’s death, the first curator of the new Leeds City Art Gallery, George Birkett, invited loans for a retrospective exhibition of his work alongside three other artists. Walter Battle lent a large number of pictures, including ‘Iris’. Birkett fell in love with it and later that year, in spite of lack of funds, he bought the picture for the Gallery. In the Gallery catalogue he calls it ‘a characteristic specimen of the artist’s best work – strongly individual and unlike that of any other artist….’Iris’ is perhaps in every way his masterpiece’.
By Eveleigh Bradford, Local Historian.
The picture is currently out of sight during the Gallery’s closure, but will feature alongside others in Eveleigh’s illustrated talk on Grimshaw on 7th March 2017 at Abbey House Museum.