Joseph Wright (1734-97) spent much of his life in his birth
town of Derby and is thus often referred to as “Joseph Wright of Derby”. He was
an original painter who is generally renowned for his paintings that used
science and industry for their subjects. He was, however, also an excellent
portraitist and painter of landscapes.
His Early Life
Joseph Wright was one of five children born to a Derby
attorney, his date of birth being 3rd September 1734. Little is
known about his childhood apart from the fact that he was educated at Derby
Grammar School and that he was interested in drawing from an early age.
When he was aged 17 he was sent to London to be apprenticed
to Thomas Hudson, a fashionable portrait painter. After two years he returned
to Derby, being somewhat dissatisfied with spending too much time finishing the
background details of Hudson’s portraits.
Wright tried to establish himself as a portraitist in Derby,
but came to realise that he needed more guidance. He therefore went back to
Hudson’s studio for a further 15 months.
On his second return to Derby he tried his hand again as a
professional portraitist, and this time he was more successful. He soon
established a reputation for this kind of work and was able to set up his own
portrait business in Derby.
A New Development
In the early 1760s Joseph Wright turned his hand to
something new, which was “candle-light” pictures in which the chief source of
light was a candle or lamp that highlighted faces and objects and threw other
parts of the canvas into deep shadow. He sometimes included the Moon as a
secondary light source.
This approach was unprecedented in English painting but had
been used for some time in European art, notably by Caravaggio in the early 17th
century and his followers who became known as the “Caravaggisti”.
However, what made Wright`s approach original was his choice
of subject matter, namely the world of science which had not previously been a
theme that attracted artists. Two notable works in this genre were “A Philosopher
Giving a Lecture on the Orrey” (1764-6) and “An Experiment on a Bird in the Air
Pump” (1767-8).
Liverpool
Towards the end of 1768 Joseph Wright moved away from Derby
and settle in Liverpool, which was a flourishing cultural centre. A Society of
Arts, modelled on London’s Royal Academy, was set up in 1769 during Wright’s
stay in the city.
Wright concentrated on portrait painting while in Liverpool
and there were complaints from fellow artists that he was stealing their
business.
After three years he returned to Derby where he married Anne
Swift, apparently not with the approval of his own extended family. It was a
successful marriage that was to produce six children.
Rome
The couple visited Rome in 1774 for a stay that kept them
away from England for nearly two years. He was fascinated by Rome, where he
spent a lot of time making sketches of classical statues and monuments,
although he was unmoved by most of the High Renaissance art that he came
across. An exception to this indifference was Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel
ceiling. He contracted a liver complaint after spending hours lying on the
floor to get a better view.
A visit to Naples coincided with a minor eruption of Mount
Vesuvius, of which Wright was able to make a spontaneous oil sketch.
Their visits to other Italian cities on their return journey
were brief, despite all the artistic treasures to be seen in Florence, Venice
and elsewhere. He did not reckon that he would see anything to rival what he
had seen in Rome.
Wright was able to make good use of the contents of his
sketchbooks when he resumed his large-scale painting back in England.
Bath
Joseph Wright did not stay long in Derby before moving to
Bath in November 1775. He hoped to fill the portrait-painter gap that Thomas
Gainsborough left when he had departed for London the previous year.
However, this did not prove to be a good move due to the
fact that the fashionable residents of Bath did not appreciate Wright’s
down-to-earth style of portraiture. Potential clients expected to be flattered
by a portraitist, and Wright’s Midlands honesty was not to their liking.
Commissions for portraits were therefore few and far between and after two
years he had no choice but to head back to Derby, where he spent the rest of
his life.
Becoming Better Known
One problem with being based in a relatively small
provincial city is that one will find it difficult to be appreciated by the
leaders of the artistic world, who are generally located in the larger cities
and particularly London. Joseph Wright had no wish for obscurity, so he
regularly sent canvases to London for exhibition.
He was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Academy in
1781, but he desperately wanted to achieve full membership. He was passed over
for this honour in 1783, having quarreled with some senior members, and
therefore looked elsewhere for recognition, namely Liverpool. This led to him
mounting an exhibition of 25 of his own works in the city in 1785, which was
probably the first example of a one-man-exhibition in the country.
However, this move was not as successful as Wright had
hoped, so he patched up his quarrel with the Royal Academy and resumed
exhibiting in London.
His Later Life
Joseph Wright suffered from ill health in middle age,
although he added to his asthma by depression caused by imagining ills that did
not exist. He was greatly helped by his friend Erasmus Darwin (the grandfather
of Charles) who was not only a key member of the “Midlands Enlightenment” but a
physician who was able to prescribe appropriate treatments for his patient.
Health concerns did not restrict Joseph Wrights from making
visits to friends in various places and making tours of the Lake District in
1793 and 1794 which resulted in a number of landscape paintings.
Joseph Wright died in Derby in August 1797 at the age of 62.
His paintings and drawings can be seen today in galleries
around the world, but the largest collection is almost certainly that held at
the Derby Museum and Art Gallery.
An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump
This is probably the best-known painting by Joseph Wright,
and is typical both of his mature painting style and choice of subject matter.
It dates from around 1767 or 1768.
The scene is a demonstration of a scientific experiment that
is presumably being given in a country house to the wealthy owner and his
family. The device in question, which had been invented at least 100 years
before the date of the painting, was used to create a vacuum in a glass vessel,
and by placing a live creature in the vessel it was possible to show that
removing air caused the creature to lose consciousness and possibly die of
suffocation.
In Wright’s painting a bird is inside the air pump, lying
collapsed at the base, and the experimenter is about to release the valve at
the top of the glass vessel and let the air back in. There is tension in this
scene – has the experimenter waited too long? Has the bird died?
This is very much a candle-light painting, although the
candle is hidden behind a bowl of water. Also typical of Joseph Wright’s work is
the presence of a secondary light source, namely the Moon which is visible
through a window on the extreme right-hand side thanks to the young servant who
has just opened a curtain.
However, the real interest in this painting comes from the
reactions of the witnesses to the experiment. The demonstrator’s face is
expressionless as he looks straight at the viewer and not at the air pump or
the bird inside it. Other observers are clearly fascinated by it, although the
young couple on the extreme left seem to be far more interested in each other.
The people whose faces are best illuminated by the candle
are the three who attract most attention, particularly the young girl who looks
anxiously at the bird. She seems close to tears but cannot tear her eyes away from
what could be a tragic outcome. Her older sister, on the other hand, hides her
face with her hand and is comforted by her father, who points to where the
scientist is about to open the valve and save the life of the bird.
Every face has a different story to tell, and Wright has
achieved this within the limits of the illumination provided by a single
candle. That is why this painting has been described (by the art historian Sir
Ellis Waterhouse) as “one of the wholly original masterpieces of British art”.
The Alchemist in Search of the Philosopher’s Stone
It might be thought strange that Joseph Wright, with his
interest in modern science, should feel comfortable in portraying the activity
of a man whose quest was entirely spurious, namely trying to discover the
secrets of turning base metal into gold and of living forever. However, alchemy
was not always held in such low esteem.
During the 17th century Robert Boyle, who was one
of the founders of the Royal Society and is often regarded as being the “Father
of Chemistry”, showed considerable interest in alchemy and was known to have
carried out experiments that sought to do exactly what traditional alchemists
did. In other words, the dividing line between fake and true science was by no
means clear-cut.
The painting, which dates from 1771, certainly has mystery
and magic in it, such as the attitude of the alchemist and the expression of
wonder on his face. However, there are also elements of more established
science to be seen, such as the scientific instruments and the documents that
the alchemist has been consulting or possibly writing.
Indeed, there is strong evidence that this painting demonstrates
the crossing of the line from alchemy to chemistry in that it depicts the
discovery of phosphorus by a German alchemist named Hennig Brand, in 1669.
The painting is typical of Wright for its limited number of
light sources, the glow from which illuminate the faces of the people depicted.
The Moon also makes an appearance through the window of what appears to be a
church-like building.
The Earthstopper on the Banks of the Derwent
This is an early landscape by Joseph Wright, painted in
1773. This was before he travelled to Italy and became seriously interested in
painting landscapes.
However, despite this being an outdoor scene, it is also a
“candle-light” one, with a lantern on the ground and the Moon illuminating high
clouds at the top of the canvas.
The scene depicts a man who had the task of filling in
foxholes at night prior to a foxhunt taking place the following day, with the
aim being to prevent any fox from making an easy escape.
Although it is a landscape, with trees, clouds and a
fast-running river, the focus is very much on the man doing the digging and his
dog, which is sniffing the ground beside him. This realistic and dynamic work
shows Wright at his experimental best.
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