The painter John Atkinson Grimshaw is best known for his moody urban landscapes. This impressionistic painting of Liverpool in 1875* is an inspiration in how tones, spheres, moods, perspectives and contexts can be found and fixed.

This scene is impressionistic and direct at the same time. It is easy to imagine you actually are there, transcended with your personal time-machine 149 years backwards to one of the most developed cities of Europe, Liverpool. Talking of ‘finding to tone’, this painting is an accurate example. No words are needed to describe what the tone of the city was.

*Grimshaw, J.A. (1875) Liverpool Docks From Wapping Wharf. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.