Department: Visual Art

This painting shows the inside of a Grinders workshop, with a grinder and young apprentice. The Sheffield metalwork industry was booming during the 1800s, when this painting was made. Sheffield was the main maker of cutlery, and it was the job of the grinders to sharpen the many blades produced. Today there is only one grinder left in Sheffield. Godfrey Sykes (1824-1866), was born 1824, Malton, Yorkshire. He studied at Sheffield School of Design (1844-54), became a designer modeller, and worked on decorative work at the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria & Albert Museum). Godfrey Sykes was a very talented man, not only an artist but a designer too. He lived and worked in Sheffield painting many scenes around the Sheffield area, of the landscape and factory interiors.