A Victorian painting which has hung in a farmhouse dining room for almost 50 years is expected to fetch more than £100,000 when it goes to auction this month.

The oil-on-canvas by John Atkinson Grimshaw shows a view of Liverpool docks and was bought for just £100 in the 1960s.

Another Grimshaw sold by the same auction house in Alnwick, Northumberland, last October made £185,000 and the publicity led the vendor of this picture, a farmer from the north of England who wishes to remain anonymous, to come forward.

Both paintings feature Liverpool Docks and Grimshaw, who started his working life as a railway clerk before turning to art, became famous for his canvases of industrial areas.

His work rarely comes on the market, so the previous sale generated much interest, and a high price.

Auctioneer Jim Railton said: “The international publicity that painting attracted resulted in a farmer coming forward with this latest work.

“He inherited it from his father, who had bought it for £100 in the 1960s and it has remained hanging in the dining room of their farmhouse ever since.

“It is a quality picture painted by a man who has mastered his craft. One can almost feel the damp chill of the evening.”