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| 1765-68 Self-Portrait in a Fur Cap monochrome pastel on blue-grey laid paper 42.5 x 29.5 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
Joseph Wright (1734 – 1797) styled Joseph Wright of Derby. Was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as “the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution”. Wright is noted for his use of Chiaroscuro effect, which emphasises the contrast of light and dark, and for his paintings of candle-lit subjects. His paintings of the birth of science out of alchemy, often based on meetings of the Lunar Society, a group of very influential scientists and industrialists living in the English Midlands, are a significant record of the struggle of science against religious values in the period known as the Age of Enlightenment.
This is part 2 of a 5 - part post on the works of Joseph Wright. For full biographical notes, and for earlier works, see part 1 also.
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| 1769 An Academy by Lamplight oil on canvas 127 x 101.2 cm Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT |
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| 1772 William Pether after Joseph Wright "An Academy by Lamplight" mezzotint on paper 58.1 x 45.7 cm Five Colleges Museums Collections Database, MA |
1769 (exhibited) A Philosopher by Lamplight
The painting was described in the catalogue
of the 1801 sale as a companion to “The Alchymist Discovering Phosphorous.” A
philosopher is examining a collection of human bones in a lamp-lit cave. Two
smaller men, or boys, dressed as pilgrims seem to be approaching him. These figures
are a lot smaller than the main character.
Experts believe the painting was based on
Salvator Rosa’s “Democritus in Meditation” (c1760). Wright’s friend John
Hamilton Mortimer was a follower of Rosa’s, so it is possible that Wright could
have seen Rosa’s work or an engraving of it. Democritus was a Greek philosopher
remembered for making fun of the foolishness of mankind. Though the painting’s
subtitle is “A Hermit Studying Anatomy,” his attitude toward the bones he is
holding does not suggest serious scrutiny. He is surrounded by symbols of the
ephemeral nature of the human condition, which include the skeleton, a lamp
that will burn all its fuel, the moon which has to be reborn every four weeks,
and an hourglass. The moon was also the symbol of the “Lunar Society” that
Wright was strongly associated with, but never became a member of.
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| exhibited 1769 A Philosopher by Lamp Light oil on canvas 128.2 x 102 cm Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK |
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| Salvator Rosa "Democritus in Meditation" c1760 oil on canvas 344 x 214 cm Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark |
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| 1769 Fleetwood Hesketh oil on canvas 127 x 102 cm Private Collection |
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| 1769 Mrs Frances Hesketh oil on canvas 127 x 101.5 cm Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK |
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| 1769 Mrs James Hardman of Rochdale and Allerton Hall oil on canvas 76.2 x 63.5 cm Lancashire County Museum Service, Preston, UK |
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| 1769 Mrs Thomas Parke ( 1740–1827 ) oil on canvas 76.8 x 64 cm National Museums Liverpool, UK |
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| 1769 Thomas Parke ( 1729–1819 ) oil on canvas 76 x 63.5 cm Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK |
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| 1769 Thomas Staniforth of Darnall, Co. York oil on canvas 93 x 77.5 cm Tate, London, UK |
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| 1769 Valentine Green after Joseph Wright "The Bradshaw Children" mezzotint on paper 47.9 x 38.1 cm Five Colleges Museums Collections Database, MA |
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| 1769-70c Sarah Carver and Her Daughter, Sarah oil on canvas 127 x 101.6 cm Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK |
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| 1769-71c Mrs Catherine Swindell oil on canvas 71.4 x 55.7 cm Leicester Museums and Art Galleries, Leicester, UK |
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| 1769-71c Mrs John Ashton oil on canvas 126.1 x 101 cm The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK |
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| 1769c Charles Goore ( 1701–1783 ) oil on canvas 76 x 64 cm University of Liverpool, UK |
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| 1769c Elizabeth, Mrs. John Bostock oil on canvas 127 x 101.6 cm The Berger Collection, Denver, CO |
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| 1769c Mrs John Ashton oil on canvas 126.1 x 101 cm Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK |
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| 1769c Mrs. Sarah Clayton oil on canvas 127 x 01.6 cm Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA |
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| 1769c Penelope Margaret Stafford oil on canvas 76.2 x 63.5 cm Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK |
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| exhibited 1770 A Conversation of Girls ( Two Girls with Their Black Servant ) oil on canvas 127 x 101.6 cm Private Collection |
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| 1770 Thomas Day oil on canvas 121.9 x 97.8 cm © National Portrait Gallery, London |
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| 1770 Thomas Day ( 2nd version ) oil on canvas 127 x 100.4 cm Manchester City Galleries, UK |
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| 1770 William Pether after Joseph Wright "Master John Ashton" mezzotint on paper 65.2 x 15.9 cm Five Colleges Museums Collections Database, MA |
1770-72 Mr and Mrs Thomas Coltman
Thomas Coltman (1747 – 1826) of Hagnaby
Priory, Licolnshire, is shown with his wife, Mary Barlow (1747 – 1786) whom he
married in 1769. The house in the background is Gate Burton House,
Lincolnshire.
Thomas Coltman was a friend of the painter.
This portrait is recorded in Wright’s account book as “Mr & Mrs Coltman, a
Converastion (£63)”. Conversation pieces, in which portraits were placed in an
attractive landscape setting, or sometimes indoors, were popular in 18th-century
England. The National Gallery
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| 1770-72 Mr and Mrs Thomas Coltman oil on canvas 127 x 101.6 cm The National Gallery, London |
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| 1770-72 Portrait of a Woman, Her Head Turned to the Right, Wearing an Earring pastel on paper 40.3 x 28 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1770-72c An Open Hearth with a Fire ink and wash on paper 27.9 x 30.4 cm Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK |
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| 1770-72c Study of the Interior of Glass-House pen and ink, grey wash heightened with white on paper 36.2 x 52.1 cm Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby UK |
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| 1770-73c Portrait of a Gentleman oil on canvas 128 x 102 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1770c Blot Drawing in a Manner of Alexander Cozens brush and ink on paper 25.4 x 38.7 cm Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK |
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| 1770c Landscape Study Development from a Blot graphite, brush and ink wash on paper 27 x 38.7 cm Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK |
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| 1770c Catherine Sophia Macauley oil on canvas 74.5 x 61 cm Brighton and Hove Museums and Art Galleries, UK |
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| 1770c Erasmus Darwin oil on canvas 76 x 63.5 cm copy Darwin College, Cambridge UK |
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| 1770c Erasmus Darwin oil on canvas 76 x 63.5 cm Darwin College, Cambridge UK |
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| 1770c Portrait of a Lady with her Lacework oil on canvas 126.7 x 101.6 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1770c Sir Brownlow Cust, 1st Baron Brownlow ( attributed to ) oil on canvas 98 x 89 cm The National Trust, Belton House, Grantham, UK |
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| 1770s Captain Edward Salmon oil on canvas The National Trust for Scotland, UK |
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| 1771 A Blacksmith's Shop oil on canvas 125.7 x 99 cm Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK |
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| 1771 A Blacksmith's Shop ( detail ) oil on canvas 125.7 x 99 cm Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK |
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| 1771 Richard Earlom after Joseph Wright "A Blacksmith's Shop" mezzotint on white laid paper 61.2 x 43.4 cm ( image ) Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1771 A Blacksmith's Shop ( 2nd version ) oil on canvas 128.3 x 104 cm Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT |
The Alchymist in Search of the
Philosopher’s Stone (exhibited 1771, reworked and dated 1795) (Full title: The
Alchymist, in Search of the Philosopher’s Stone, Discovers Phosphorous, and
Prays for the Successful Conclusion of his Operation, as was the Custom of the
Ancient Chymical Astrologers).
Traditionally, the chief pursuit of alchemists
was the search for “The Philosopher’s Stone,” which would miraculously
transform base metals into gold. The painting depicts the accidental discovery
of the element phosphorous by German alchemist Hennig Brand in 1669. A flask in
which a large quantity of urine has been boiled down is seen bursting into
light as the phosphorous, which is abundant in urine, ignites spontaneously in
air. Wright’s purpose was not to ridicule superstition, but to commemorate the
birth of chemistry as a modern science, beginning with the
discovery of phosphorus in 1676. Wright strove for accuracy in depicting the
chemist’s apparatus, since many of friends and patrons were scientists and
intellectuals who had stimulated the artist’s interest in scientific enquiry.
+re-worked+and+dated+1795+The+Alchymist,+in+Search+of+the+Philosopher's+Stone+oil+on+canvas+127+x+101.6+cm+Derby+Museum+and+Art+Gallery,+Derby+UK+*see+notes.jpg) |
| exhibited 1771-95 exhibited re-worked and dated 1795 The Alchymist, in Search of the Philosopher's Stone oil on canvas 127 x 101.6 cm Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK |
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| 1771-95 The Alchymist ( detail ) oil on canvas 127 x 101.6 cm Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK |
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| William Pether after Joseph Wright mezzotint Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio |
1771-2 An Iron Forge
Many of Wright’s explorations of new
inventions and technology were painted as “night-pieces” which he made between
1771 and 1773, taking as his subject the blacksmith’s shops and forges of
Derbyshire. In this scene of a small iron forge at work, an iron-founder and
his family are bathed in the warm light cast by a newly forged white-hot iron
bar, which has been dragged out of the nearby furnace by an assistant. Wright
adapted the scale for dramatic effect, compressing the scene to accommodate the
machinery and the figures. In actuality, the heat and sparks would have made
the proximity impossible.
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| 1771-2 An Iron Forge oil on canvas 121.3 x 132 cm Tate, London |
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| 1773 Richard Earlom after Joseph Wright "An Iron Forge" mezzotint on paper 47.8 x 59 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| exhibited1772 'Captain' Robert Shore Milnes oil on canvas 127 x 101.6 cm Private Collection |
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| 1772 Miravan Breaking Open the Tomb of His Ancestors oil on canvas 127 x 101.6 cm Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK |
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| 1772 Valentine Green after Joseph Wright "Miravan" mezzotint on off-white laid paper 46 x 35.4 cm ( image ) Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1772-73c Self-Portrait at the Age of About Forty oil on canvas 76.2 x 63.5 cm Private Collection |
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| 1772c Rocks with Waterfall oil on canvas 80.7 x 109.2 cm Private Collection |
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| 1773 An Iron Forge Viewed from Without oil on canvas 105 x 140 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia |
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| 1773 The Earth-stopper on the Banks of the Derwent oil on canvas 97 x 121 cm Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK |
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| 1773 The Old Man and Death oil on canvas 101 x 127 cm Wadsworth Atheneum, Harford, CT |
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| 1775c The Old Man and Death oil on canvas 63.5 x 76.9 cm Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK |
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| 1774 A Cavern Evening oil on canvas 101.6 x 127 cm Five Colleges Museums Collections Database, MA |
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| 1774 A Cavern, Evening oil on canvas 101.6 x 127 cm Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA |
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| 1774 A Cavern, Near Naples oil on canvas 101.6 x 127 cm Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT |
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| 1774 Reverend Basil Bury Beridge oil on canvas 127 x 101 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum. Vienna, Austria |
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| 1774 Study of the Terrain near Vesuvius graphite on paper 31.1 x 45 cm Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK |
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| 1774 The Captive, from Sterne oil on canvas 102 x 127.5 cm Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
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| 1774 Vesuvius in Eruption gouache on paper 32.4 x 46.7 cm Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, UK |
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| 1774-75 Inside the Arcade of the Colosseum graphite, ink and watercolour 37.7 x 50.7 cm Tate, London |
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