Curator's introduction to 'Wright of Derby- From the Shadows' - National Gallery

Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen welcome to the National Gallery my name is Christine Riding and I'm Director of Collections and Research here at the Gallery as well as the curator of the current Joseph Wright of Derby: Shadows exhibition and I'm giving an introduction to that exhibition here today Before I begin I just wanted to let you know o a forthcoming lecture by Dr John King on the 16th of March I believe I'm right where he explores many of themes I'm developing today particularly the focus on childhood the portrayal of children and the sense of awe and wonder and the visual culture and entertainment culture of London and the United Kingdom during the 18th century so I'm actually steering away from those particular areas today but please do join us on the 16th of March for John's talk I've also been handed a note from my colleagues in the learning department to let anyone who enjoys our lectures or attends our adult courses know that there's a holiday celebratory drink waiting for them at the supporter's house sold it for me I'm heading out—please come join us at 1:45 for our course's holiday mixer so I think this is where you'll begin to get a sense of what's coming up at the National Gallery and the kind of courses we offer so that would be I think really helpful worth attending In 1863 nearly a century after the painting was first exhibited Edward Tyrrell donated Joseph Wright of Derby's painting of an experiment with a bird in an air pump National Gallery Some 20 years later in 1884 a philosopher delivered that lecture on The orrery with a lamp substituted for the sun was acquired through public subscription and permanently gifted to the Derby Art Gallery Since then these publicly owned and permanently displayed paintings have become two of the most iconic images in the history of British art not only because of their imposing scale and visual power but also because they have risen above the specific artistic moment that gave rise to them becoming emblematic of an entire era of British history society and culture While Wright could no ad he foreseen what the future would hold for his air pump and orrery there is little doubt that he was expressing in visual form matters of far broader significance and concern than those of the mid-Georgian art market But subsequent references to him being an artist of the Enlightenment or of the Industrial Revolution partly in response e scientific themes of these two paintings would have had little meaning for the artist and his contemporaries not least because neither term—Enlightenment nor Industrial—held the same conceptual weight they do today The term "revolution" was first coined in Britain in the late 19th century In his own estimation Wright was first and foremost a painter who over a career spanning some 40 years engaged featuring a wide range of artistic genres styles and associations However it was through his portrayals focusing on the dramatic interplay of light and shadow known at the time rough his candlelit scenes and later nocturnal paintings Wright was able to set himself apart from his contemporaries and achieve lasting fame Initially this acclaim stemmed from Wright's distinctive use of tenebrism derived from the Italian word tenebroso meaning darkened or obscured a painting style associated with the later works of the Italian Baroque e artist Caravaggio and his numerous followers across Italy Spain and Northern Europe including e likes of Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi Hendrick T Bruin Gerrit van Honthorst and Adam da Costa and Giuseppe di Ribera This style was characterized by an unprecedented level of realism combined with an extreme form of chiaroscuro meaning light and dark in itself a hallmark of Western painting since the High Renaissance However rather than merely enhancing the illusion of three-dimensional forms and spaces tenebrism transformed darkness into a powerful expressive force a central component of the picture Importantly for Wright it was a tradition increasingly admired by international collectors and connoisseurs yet with few precedents champions or indeed practitioners in 18th century British art By 1770 the claustrophobic intensity of Wright's earliest candlelight paintings visible on the left would evolve into a series of nocturnal scenes that contrasted exterior and interior spaces through natural illumination at is moonlight and artificial light from lanterns smithies and iron forges and where the European landscape tradition as exemplified by the 17th-century Neapolitan Salvatore Rosa and the works of Wright's near contemporaries Richard Wilson and Claude-Joseph Vernet served as a key inspiration Yet his fascination with the artistic potential of darkness and light remained a constant Thus the purpose of the current exhibition at the National Gallery is to explore this particular aspect of Wright's early to mid-career encompassing the period from 1765 when he began exhibiting from London to 1773 when he traveled to Italy to advance his professional ambitions after which his focus and style shifted significantly toward pure landscapes and evocative or poetic themes arratives drawn from literature Between these two auspicious dates Wright established himself as one of the most exciting and innovative artistic talents working in Britain who by by the early 1770s he had earned an international reputation through the public display and sale of his candlelight paintings and equally through their widespread circulation in Britain and beyond through the creation of luxury mezzotints In doing so Wright was actively engaging with and contributing to a period of profound transformation in British visual arts Indeed his mastery of the candlelight format meant that he was able to simultaneously energize a 17th -century tradition firmly ascribed to the old masters while broadening its appeal beyond e exclusive world of art patrons and connoisseurs When focusing on his candlelight and nig It should be remembered that Joseph Wright began his career in the mid-1750s as a provincial portrait painter at a time when portraiture dominated British art production European artists had long been encouraged through their training and practice to draw on the lessons of the past by closely observing classical Greek and Roman sculpture and Italia Renaissance painters especially Raphael Michelangelo and Titian Without substantial state support for the arts or an academy structured along the formal models prevalent on the continent British-born artists were seen as at a disadvantage particularly in history painting which was regarded as the most formally and intellectually demanding genre of all genres of art and thus the most prestigious What compounded the situation was the classical bias of aristocratic culture in Britain exemplified by the 18th century phenomenon known as the Grand Tour Grand Tour which took the sons of the nobility and landed gentry on extended excursions across Europe particularly to Italy with prolonged stays in Rome and its surrounding areas One of the main drivers of suc A tour became an exercise in art appreciation and taste formation that profoundly influenced attitudes toward collecting and commissioning paintings as patrons became determined to acquire works whether abroad or upon return eir return exemplified by Italian Renaissance masters Baroque artists including Salvatore Rosa and esteemed 17th-century French classicists such as Claude and Poussin Their paintings fluenced by mythological and biblical themes and narratives established a benchmark in art history setting a standard for the genre of historical landscape painting associated with British artists at least in some circles being technically and intellectually incapable of emulation This long-standing bias meant that British artists were also competing for patronage against leading contemporary Italian or Rome-based artists such as Vernet and Pompeo Batoni the latter the principal portraitist in Rome foreign visitors Batoni's Grand Tour portrait of Sir Windham Nashville Windham on the left reveals exactly what Wright and his fellow British artists were up against even in the realm of portraiture posed w a classical interior the young aristocrat gestures toward a temple in the distance his flamboyant van Dyck-style attire far from mere costume clearly signaling a deep connection to cultural heritage authority of King Charles I and the Stuart court through whom the concept of the Grand Tour emerged own account reflected his deep resolve to pursue his artistic ambitions which had already begun to take shape Thus Wright's determination to travel to Rome in 1773 as noted by his ece and early biographer Hannah reflected the immense pressure felt by many in the cultural sphere at the time So the challenge for Wright and his fellow painters whether they had Whether or not they had been to Italy the aim was to attract grand tourists and other wealthy clients while simultaneously elevating the status of contemporary British art in their eyes This may in par explain Wright's fascination with a 17th-century continental artistic tradition rooted in Rome and Naples exemplified by works of Caravaggio and the so-called Caravaggis would have been seen by travelers in Italy and beyond and were present in private collections in the United Kingdom Out of commercial necessity portraiture would remain a major strand Joseph Wright both as a vital source of income and a means of networking However Wright concluded as did many of his generation that to raise his professional standing he needed to broade s expansion into other genres while strategically engaging with the opportunities presented by the rapidly evolving London art world despite Joseph Wright being the first major British painter who worked almost entirely outside the capital Wright's lifelong ambition was to succeed as both a provincial and a cosmopolitan artist Known as of Derby s birthplace from early on in his career Wright seems to have viewed this blending of person and place as commercially advantageous by distinguishing himself from other artists based London and with a local clientele for portraiture consisting of aristocrats landed gentry and the professional classes he may also have considered it financially prudent given the considerable expense of a studio house in the capital and being rooted in the English Midlands Joseph was the third of five children born to Hannah Brooks and John Wright an attorney and the town clerk of Derby a thriving market town ran much deeper than providing a source of income and inspiration It was central to his personal identity and regional loyalties and friendships Indeed it was through such connections that Wright received encouragement as well as commissions for his subject paintings including the orrery and the air pump And here on the screen to the left is an image slightly later in fact 1790s of the famous silk mill in Derby and on the right-hand side following the 1910 fire e silk mill was actually rebuilt and is now part of Derby Museums well worth the visit visit as the museum of making Even so London in the 1750s and 1760s was vital to Wright's development and success and it was where he trained to become an artist beginning at the age at the age of 17 he spent two periods from 1751 to 1753 and 1756 to 1757 in the studio of a prominent artis well-connected portrait painter Thomas Hudson whose pupil a decade earlier had been none other than Joshua Reynolds Wright's training included studying casts of classical sculpture old master prints and drawings from his own personal collection sorry from Hudson's personal collection and then drapery and poses drawn from the elder artist's portraits Wright's technique and handling during In the 1760s a technique characterized by closely and evenly applied brushwork to achieve a smooth highly polished finish emerged inspired by Hudson’s example and reflected his increasing confidence in employing these formal methods qualities evident in the increasingly complex large-scale compositions is seen in the striking double portrait of his friend cartographer and engraver Peter Perez Burdett and the latter's first wife Hannah dated and signed 1765 This crisp sharply defined and vidly colored The painting technique was also ideally suited to the dramatic effects he aimed to achieve in his early candlelight paintings Beyond what he would have learned and observed firsthand from Thomas Hudson during the 1750s when Wright was living in the heart of the city's vibra e contemporary art world centered on Leicester Fields—now Leicester Square—near Covent Garden and to the north Lincoln's Inn Fields where Hudson was based in other words the very same area at you're sitting in Wright would therefore have taken advantage of and been stimulated by the shared aims ambitions and spirit of cooperation among the artists associated w e St Martin's Lane Academy founded in 1735 under the direction of William Hogarth and the public art projects they generated Johann Zoffany painted the only known depiction of a life class at the Academy which remained in operation until 1767 showing the participants drawing and discussing their work by lamplight a common practice throughout Europe at the time with casts of antique busts and framed chalk drawings displayed at the back of the room The subject of study and Drawing whether for professional or amateur purposes was already a well-established and resonant theme in British art and thus appeared in Wright's early portraits of the young brothers Samuel and William Rustall and in two of his candlelit scenes three individuals observing the and an academy by lamplight which he painted during his residence in Liverpool from late 1768 to 1771 Alongside art instruction and drawing academies there were other initiatives in London specifically designed to introduce a modern school of British art to a wider public and would as captured the attention of many aspiring artists For example the Foundling Hospital established in 1739 osted the first scheme of its kind in the country launched just four years before Wright's arrival in London where history paintings portraiture topographical views and other genres assembled by Hogarth Hudson and other leading figures such as Joseph Highmore and Alan Ramsey along with younger talents including Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough to create an impressive and diverse collectio collection of British art for visitors to peruse in the public rooms One painting that would have been personally and professionally fascinating to write about is Hogarth's March of the Guards o Finchley acquired by the hospital in 1750 It depicts British soldiers assembling in 1745 o defend London from the Jacobite army led by Charles Edward Stuart otherwise known as Bonnie Prince Charlie as he marched south from Edinburgh through England as far as Derby The 11-year-old Joseph Wright and his siblings had been hastily evacuated to nearby Repton as the family home in the centre of Derby was temporarily used as a billet by occupying officers and soldiers Hogarth's painting part factual part allegory was also more than a hint to Joseph Wright as to ow a familiar or newsworthy subject that resonated with the everyday experiences of contemporary viewers as exemplified by The Orrery and the Air Pump could be reimagined through ingenuity of an ambitious artist into the realms of high art Building on such groundbreaking artistic programmes at urban venues the 1760s marked a significant turning point in the creation and public display of contemporary art accompanied by the rise of a vibrant exhibition culture alongside an already thriving print market This was marked by the establishment of a series of increasingly sophisticated institutions societies beginning in Edinburgh in 1755 followed four years later by London's Society of Arts and s offshoots the Society of Artists of Great Britain founded in 1761 and the Free Society of Artists of 1762 ultimately leading to the establishment of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768 Wright exhibited almost exclusively at the Society of Artists until 1778 even as the Royal Academy had swiftly established itself as the leading contemporary art forum and school in Britain under the presidency of Joshua Reynolds However the existence of multiple societies and exhibition venues meant that artists had the opportunity to play an increasingly prominent role in British cultural life public life with audiences for their work expanding far beyond the exclusive world of connoisseurs patrons and critics Now art was seen by anyone who had the inclination and could afford the entrance fee let alone a mere shilling Not surprisingly this unexpected twist of events was favored by young and provincial artists seeking success and recognition in the capital Joseph Wright was notably supported in 1760 a pivotal moment for the advancement of his career s emerging cultural trend encouraged more pioneering artists to adopt or champion a distinctive signature style Assuming Joseph Wright was monitoring the latest trends and innovations on display London from the early 1760s he would have observed that his contemporaries Wilson and Gainsboroug Zoffany Reynolds and George Stubbs were already leveraging the context of public exhibition to experiment testing the market in ways that Wright would later do for painting genres beyond society portraiture at is landscape genre painting and historical scenes featuring works just as ambitious and rooted in the old master tradition yet unconventional or still distinctive o gain any significant traction with British art patrons And it is in this context as specifically an exhibitor that Wright's identification with the candlelight traditio should be viewed For instance at the very first London exhibition in 1760 Richard Wilson caused a sensation with his The Destruction of the Children of Niobe Here was a British artist mastering the hybrid style of mythological narrative in a landscape setting brought to life with extraordinary power and emotional intensity prominence by Claude but in this instance drawing inspiration from the wild untamed compositions of Salvatore Rosa Wright's fascination with the landscapes of Rosa and Wilson would resurface a a decade later two night scenes are depicted in 1773 On the right the Iron Forge is viewed from without and on the left an earth stopper on the banks of the Derwent underscoring a distinct shift in subject especially the emphasis on working-class labor and composition in his earliest exhibits But the point being made here is that the artists were emboldened by the tactics and successes of their peers Thus Reynolds took a particularly innovative approach to his unique style of grand manner portraiture blending classical and Renaissance ideals when he exhibited his large-scale painting *Garrick Between Tragedy and Comedy* in 1762 overtly allegorizing a contemporary figure in this case the trailblazing actor and theatre manager David Garrick Reynolds also indicated how artists could now capitalize on the fame and notoriety of performers and other public figures to engage and entertain visitors Similarly in submitting Horse Frightened by a Lion and its companion on the right Horse Devoured by a lion exhibited at the Society of Artists in 1763 Stubbs established his intellectual credentials and firsthand experience of Italy by selecting a subject whose roots lie in classical antiquity sculpture he had studied the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome However he made the subjec s own by setting the scene in a British rather than Italianate or idealised landscape—Creswell Crags near the Peak District—while also delineating with astonishing anatomical accuracy e terror and violence of the encounter thereby harnessing its emotional and narrative power and I'll return to this painting toward the end of my talk Skillfully encapsulating the e formalities of history painting allowed Stubbs to elevate both himself and his art above the highly commercial yet less critically esteemed genres of sporting art and equine portraiture examples of which he had also submitted to the same exhibition I think this is important— the juxtaposition of the more commercial genres with these more innovative ones So it was s rich and competitive environment in which Joseph Wright made his London debu Society of Artists in 1765 both as a portraitist and subject painter with two works of art the e aforementioned Three Men Viewing the Gladiator by Candlelight and an unidentified portrait described in the exhibition catalogue as a conversation and possibly that of his friend Burdett and his wife on the left The striking contrast between the gladiator and the portra such as that of the Burdetts his largest and most ambitious project at the time may well have been a determining factor in Wright's selection by showcasing the breadth of his capabilities echnical versatility Here the context of display is absolutely crucial—the densely hung public exhibitions where his paintings would attract if not demand attention The subjec and the treatment of the gladiator was also designed to appeal to art patrons and connoisseurs by showing three men intently studying a copy of the Borghese Gladiator one of the most admired from antiquity and it's generally thought to be Wright himself depicted on the right- hand side in darkness Given the importance of a signature style the novelty of Wright's In British art at least the tenebrous treatment was as significant as his choice of subjects Compare for instance his Academy by Lamplight with a painting on a similar theme and scale A Conversation depicting the artist's brother Peter and James by George Romney which was exhibited at the Free Society of Artists in 1766 But in the case of Wright's Orrery and Air Pump it's wor saying that the subjects in his compositions were unprecedented in British art So Wright was ultimately responding at the time to market trends but what of his source material in the candlelight tradition One likely historical influence was the Dutch genre painter and portraitist Godfried Schalken who worked in London between 1692 and 1697 and whose candlel paintings were already part of British private collections And to offer another contrast between Wright and Schalken's work we have two examples of young men gazing — at a classical sculpture in this case the nymph on the left and then a Venus on the right which actually indicates the kind of slightly more salacious and somewhat suggestive notion of seduction tha could come into play with the candlelight tradition but in terms of the extent of artworks we have by Joseph Wright of Derby he tended to steer away from such an overt juxtaposition Schalken trained with Gerrit Dou one of Rembrandt's most celebrated pupils who specialised in the kind of exquisitely detailed small-scale candlelight scenes that find parallels w Wright's Academy by Lamplight as well as the Philosopher by Lamplight in the center and the Alchemist on the right the latter two displayed in 1769 and 1771 respectively More recent examples were a series of mezzotints by the Irish artist Thomas Fry depicting life-sized imaginative heads arranged in various poses under candlelight Indeed one was exhibited at the Society of Arts in 1760 though I don't believe it has ever been identified but it was certainly there and these have long been associated with specific figures seen in particular Of course Wright trained as a figurative artist and was thus able to transfer e nuanced expression gesture and posture emerging from his developing portrait work influenced his candlelit paintings and vice versa Yet the opportunities offered by Tenebrism had to What has been particularly striking to Joseph Wright is that the style itself could convey a mood or emotion—not merely visible actions but states of mind In the Caravaggesque tradition this was accomplished compositionally by placing human figures sometimes half or three-quarter length and habitually on life size directly against the picture plane giving them an immediate presence viewer standing before the canvas The intensity of the scene was heightened by the illusion of a directed light source often set against impenetrable darkness thus concentrating Pay close attention to the expressions and gestures of the protagonists This also tested the artist's ability to evoke a variety of textures and surfaces—skin fabrics metal and more Under such conditions it is equally important to observe how the perception of color changes While Wright would have closely studied any available paintings and engravings to grasp how such an effect was achieved in the past on a practical level he had to find his own way s own conclusions through extensive observations and experiments Beyond the conventional practice of drawing by lamplight one method Wright employed as recounted by his niece Hanna volved two rooms in his brother Richard's house—one in darkness arranged with objects and one lit from which he could observe how light and shadow behaved Some years later Wright continued experimenting with a box-shaped device of his own design Even more intriguingly he also employed metal leaf more extensively than previously believed particularly between paint layers in the areas surrounding the source of light During a recent technical analysis of the air pump for example traces of silver leaf were found within the area illuminated by candlelight passing through the large rounded glass ere and it was clearly used to enhance the glow of the light just as Wright would have envisioned it there were numerous treatises at the time exploring the properties of metal and silver of course being the most reflective of all metals but equally demonstrated in some of Wright's painting shows his meticulous attention to details like wall sconces chandeliers and candlesticks which in Georgian England were clearly made primarily of silver if they were to be made of metal at all More directly Wright would also have observed how versatile the tenebrist style or The candlelight approach emerged in the 17th century and was used for both contemporary scenes settings and figures as well as historical or fictional stories encompassing a wide range of subjects from historical painting to genre painting depicting scenes of everyday life and from the intricate Between 1765 and 1768 inclusive Wright displayed seven candlelit paintings which broadly fall into two distinct formats: group compositions of single figures or paired figures within the tenebrist or candlelight tradition exemplars of both religious and secular themes respectively are the Denial of Saint Peter by Gerrit van Honthorst on the left and the Ma Singing by Candlelight by Adam de Costa on the right Both artists were leading Caravaggisti and intriguingly they were known during Wright's lifetime by the nicknames or sobriquets listed on the Gerrit of the Nights also known as Costa Pictor Noctium the Painter of Nights Honthorst's painting is a large-scale crowd scene depicting an episode from the Bible when a young maidservant accuses the apostle Peter on the right of knowing Jesus fearing for e denies knowing him and thus betrays his master Both the orrery displayed in The air pump of 1768 is comparable in scale and formal composition to this painting much like the work from 1766 complexity and furthermore are likely meant to convey a comparable aura of religiosity and profound moral depth Hence Wright boldly elevates a self-evidently contemporary subjec o the level conventionally reserved for history painting In the painting by Costa we see the type of secular genre scene that emerged during the 17th century and for which Netherlandis Artists were especially celebrated in Britain Here the candle flame is frequently obscured by a figure or object—in this instance the musical score—a powerful visual technique at Wright used for instance in Two Boys Fighting Over a Bladder For some of Wright's candlelight paintings the subjects—I'm not necessarily referring to the treatment but the— The subjects themselves were not new to European art particularly in his genre paintings where for instance children playing with bladders was an established theme in Dutch art traditionally erpreted alongside the representation of soap bubbles as symbolizing the emptiness of the material world or the fragility and brevity of life which is wholly appropriate in the case of childhood In the context of British art Two Girls Dressing a Kitten by Candlelight in the centre and its companion Two Boys with a Bladder fall within the broader category of fancy picture which were paintings depicting everyday themes with elements of imagination invention or storytelling This was one of the most original and popular art forms to emerge in Britain in the 1720s influenced by the genre paintings of Philippe Mercier and Jean-Siméon Chardin and other contemporary French artists who were themselves responding to Netherlandish traditions And the term fancies then understood to mean fantasy was first used in Britain in the late 1730s o describe Mercier's paintings of anonymous children and young female street vendors and domestic servants Wright plays on the notion of fantasy through his conspicuous use of elaborate costume or fancy dress in these two small-scale paintings in the center and on the right which he repeated in The Academy by Lamplight But while portraying children and adults in costume was commonplace at this time Wright's dark dramatic style was not In fact on current evidence the only British artist regularly exhibiting anything remotely comparable to Wright's was candlelights was Henry Robert Morland who from 1764 presented a series of nocturnal fantasies predominantly featuring solitary female figures in the simplified style of Mercier beginning w a ballad singer on the left leaving the field clear for Wright to take on the challenge of transforming the candlelight tradition for his own time That he was succeeding in the eyes of his contemporaries even rivaling the greats of the 17th century masters is made clear by the following published review from 1767 Among all the Flemish and Dutc Can any school match Wright in still life The enchantment of his lights and shadows defies description —how exquisite his ideas how flawless his execution Thus as one contemplates making an impact on art— Through the candlelight tradition Wright appears to have been truly captivated by the interplay between light and its direct counterpart darkness Of course light and dark have long held profound theological significance ellectual and cultural implications extending beyond art at the time which would have held profound significance for Wright as a citizen a Christian and an artist and thus remain equally resonant today viewers of his paintings In the book of Genesis for example the first act of creation is God commanding "Let there be light " In a biblical context this signifies far more than just the creation of light the physical manifestation of light—symbolizing God's creative power and the establishment of order and time within both the celestial and terrestrial realms in contrast to the initial darkness state of formlessness and darkness Wright may well have had such visions in mind when creating his striking depictions of god-like lecturers in the orrery and the air pump Furthermore in Christian theology Jesus Christ is frequently described as the light signifying his role as a source of spiritual enlightenment and guidance a concept tha features prominently in the Gospel of John where Jesus declares "I am the light of the world he who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life " The juxtaposition of lig and darkness also had a classical association with philosophy going back to Plato's allegory of the cave in book 7 of Republic which states that light is knowledge of the true Here the philosopher figure is likened to a prisoner freed from a cave who comes to understand that the shadows on the walls are not the direct reality of the objects that are glimpsed Accordingly their true forms are revealed can only be perceived externally under sunlight that is through the light of philosophical reason The common ground linking such references is that prejudice and ignorance associated with darkness have obscured our ability to perceive the truth and this perhaps inevitably leads us to the concept of enlightenment In the 18th century the terms that would have been used or understood certain quarters of the United Kingdom the French lumière meaning light and the German Aufklärung meaning a process of enlightenment together formed this intricate concept The contested term describes the broad intellectual and philosophical movement in 18th- century Europe that emphasized reason and individualism challenging traditional authority and promoted ideas such as liberty progress and tolerance A precondition to the Enlightenment was the so-called scientific revolution a term that broadly covers the transformation during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries' understanding of the natural and physical worlds across the various disciplines that Wright and his contemporaries would have called natural philosophy but which we now refer to as science call the sciences—astronomy physics chemistry and so on The English physicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton is regarded as the defining figure of the scientific revolution whose discovery of the composition of white light integrated the phenomena of color into the science of light and his three laws of motion led to the formulation of the law of universal gravitation that explained the planets' orbits thereby laying the foundation for demonstrations like the one seen in Wright's orrery Indeed more Recent commentators have suggested that the central figure of the philosopher in the painting was intended to remind 18th-century viewers of Newton’s physical appearance Such advances by Newton and others established that understanding arises from experience through experimentation not from hypotheses Central to this paradigm shift was the invention and subsequent refinement of scientific methods struments such as telescopes microscopes and air pumps the latter was invented in 1650 after which an improved version was developed and used by Robert Boyle and Dr Robert Hooke 1659 to conduct groundbreaking experiments on the properties of air including phenomena such as air pressure and the effects of air on respiration Boyle and Hooke were also I think e first to experiment by placing birds and animals—sparrows mice and kittens—into the pump's receiver from which the air had been removed now the morality of this practice involving living creatures was visibly convulsed and often died a matter of debate during the 18th century in the context of public demonstrations perhaps because women and children were likely to be present The Scottis astronomer and instrument maker James Ferguson went further by stating that such experiments were and I quote "too shocking for any spectator who has the least degree of humanity " Hence the The contemporary resonance of the life-or-death moment captured in Wright's air pump Such instruments and demonstration devices were often prized for both practical and aesthetic reasons with the makers some of whom were members of the prestigious Royal Society being both engineers and craftsmen This is particularly true of the orrery one of the first made and then named by John Rowley was working for his patron Charles Boyle fourth Earl of Orrery hence the name Orrery and an orrery is a mechanical model of the solar system that represented an advancement over the traditional static planetarium Orreries came in various sizes were either portable or designed for tabletop use and were typically powered by a clockwork mechanism The sun was represented by a globe at the center with a planet or moon attached at e end of a series of metal arms that determined their relative positions and orbits Wright's painting shows a grand orrery because it includes the outer planets then known and in additio e skeletal framework of metal bands added to some of the most prestigious examples representing the celestial sphere and forming an essential component of an older astronomical tradition an instrument known as an armillary sphere Wright who was captivated by instruments for their own sake clearly recognized the artistic and particularly tenebrist potential of a scene featuring such an object a large visually impressive orrery with a group of people naturally gathered around it Furthermore the replacement of the sun's globe with a lamp in Wright's painting in reality serves to demonstrating solar and lunar eclipses only enhances the intricate interplay between light and dark in the painting For instance the metal bands cast additional shadows on the man otes on the left This figure is often identified as Wright's friend Burdett whom we saw earlier who knew that the buyer of Wright's orrery Washington Shirley 5th Earl Ferrars was himself a prominent amateur astronomer and owner of an orrery Ferrars may have commissioned the painting via Burdett and possibly even influenced its design Wright's orrery and air pump indeed his gladiator and academy by lamplight underscore how a fundamental tenet of the Enlightenme was to promote both the pursuit of knowledge—particularly the relationship between objects and ideas which we have actually replicated in the exhibition—and equally important its broad dissemination through the kind of social gatherings and demonstrations that Wright represented and likely witnessed firsthand The now common idea of the public sphere or public realm was first coined to describe such social developments during the 18th century with the spread of institutions fostering societal improvement such as informal groups like reading and dining clubs and new associations spaces for socializing ranging from coffee houses that emerged in the late 17th century to annual art exhibitions which as we know began in 1760—the Lunar Society of Birmingham a dining club of industrialists and intellectuals including Matthew Boulton Erasmus Darwin Joseph Priestley and Josiah Wedgwood has long been associated with Joseph Wright and later commentators have even suggested that Wright's depiction of moonlight in his candlelit and nocturnal scenes was partly due to the club's name which originated from its tradition of holding meetings on the closest to the full moon thus providing better lighting for members traveling home and here we have a classic example of the vastly different relationship we in the 21st century have with light especially at night—it was often a very practical matter that you would be plunged o darkness with candlelight and firelight rather than the romantic evening that likely explains why we dim the lights in the 21st century In translating such well-established Wright not only drew on the old master tradition but also on the popular style of group portraiture described in exhibition catalogues as a conversation transforming pursuits and events into a painted canvas Whether on a small or larger scale these paintings depicted figures gathered for some kind of convivial communal or family occasion Within polite society both women and men were encouraged o engage with natural philosophy as a form of intellectual achievement alongside art and music producing publications intended equally for female and male readers following conventional formats format for treatises in the form of a dialogue or conversation rather than a straightforward narrative To give but two examples John Harris's astronomical dialogues between a gentleman and a lady was published in 1719 and includes an illustrated description of the famous instrument known as the orrery along with Benjamin Martin's The Young Gentleman and Lady's Philosophy from 1755 at includes a discussion around the use of a live animal in an air pump In Wright's air pump the couple to the left of the lecturer have turned to each other the man's lips slightly parted perhaps suggesting a private conversation The intimate quality of this exquisite scene is explained by the fact that the two figures are Wright's friends Joseph Thomas Coltman and his fiancée Mary Barlow before their marriage in 1769—absolutely stunning detail truly wonderful He's a wonderful painter Joseph Did I say that He is a wonderful painter In truth the connection between light and the pursuit of knowledge has deep roots in Western art and culture both in religious and secular contexts From the early 17th century lucubration referred specifically to scholarly or artistic study undertaken at night by candlelight associated connotations of virtuous industry and sobriety related imagery likewise forms part of the vanitas tradition characterized by symbolic objects such as a burning candle for instance embodying the passage of time and the transience of life itself linked to representations of mortality or mento mori in Latin meaning "remember that you must die"—a concept epitomized by Salvatore Rosa's introspective self-portrait on the right A gifted actor and poet Rosa viewed himself as an intellectual depicted here wearing a cypress wreath a symbol of mourning and engraving a human skull—the ultimate symbol of mortality—with the Greek words "Behold where" on the skull itself and the skull rests on a book by the Roma stoic philosopher Seneca Importantly Rosa was credited with introducing a new type of expressive landscape to European painting—one that emphasized dramatic contrast and vigorous brushwork to evoke wild and rugged scenery with gloomy skies blasted trees and rocky outcrops frequently populated by philosophers saints and hermits isolated and deep in contemplation Wright drew direct inspiratio from Rosa's Democritus in meditation to create the first of his outdoor subject paintings philosopher by lamplight and echoes of Rosa can equally be seen in an earth stopper transposed to a local Derbyshire riverbank with one of Rosa's signature motifs—a blasted dead tree positioned prominently in the foreground Such trees were occasionally incorporated for similar reasons by William Kent and other architects and landscape gardeners as sculptural elements in the landscaping around country houses and estates However the sense of impending violence and death in Wright's painting is further reinforced by the nature of the earth's work itself The stopper acting for the local hunt was to block up earths or burrows during the night thus forcing foxes to remain in the open for hunting the following day Perhaps unsurprisingly Salvatore Rosa's paintings were linked during and after his lifetime to the notion of melancholy characterized in the afflicted person by profound sadness and other symptoms psychological introspection thus shares similarities with the modern definition of depression A recurring theme in philosophical discourse from classical to Renaissance times onward was that ellectuals philosophers poets and increasingly artists were not only prone to melancholy but through the idea of genial or inspired melancholy were consequently predisposed to genius and exceptional creative ability The notion that melancholy had a positive aspect profoundly influenced 18th-century medical writings on the topic one of the most popular being the Englis Malady published in 1733 by the pioneering Scottish physician and philosopher George Cheney argued—consistent with the title and the views of others—that melancholy was an intrinsic part of the national character character and furthermore that it was specifically associated with wealth leisure and gentility—thus a disease to quote Cheney of the better sort Wright's images of polite self-improvement for example includes individuals adopting poses associated with melancholy such as resting their head on a hand as seen in the orrery and an academy by lamplig or leaning on a stick or cane like the figure in the upper right of the air pump So from the late 1760s Wright himself endured periods of illness and depression and his self-portrait on the left was painted at the moment when his fame rested chiefly on his candlelit scenes as been described by more recent commentators as an embodiment of melancholia Notably many scholars and philosophers exploring the condition over the centuries From Marsilio Vicino and Robert Burton to George Cheney they were doing so as fellow sufferers Wright's approach to his subject paintings may well reflect his own state of mind alongside wider artistic and cultural trends such as his incorporation of the moon—a traditional symbol of melancholy—into his work from the air pump onward This is especially true of the five ght pieces depicting blacksmith shops and iron forges exhibited and quickly sold between 1771 and 1773 These highly innovative and precisely detailed scenes show Wright moving moving from interior to exterior primarily rural spaces and away from the solitary light source of his earliest candlelights In this he appears to have been embracing and evolving a particular form a style associated at the time with Claude Joseph Verney whose Italian night scenes were particularly admired by British patrons for the atmospheric contrast between artificial lig such as campfires and the coolness of the moon In contrast to Verney's rustic vignettes however Wright centers working-class labor in his paintings and further imbues these figures possessing individuality dignity and grandeur—unusual at the time—Wright given the association between melancholy and the leisured classes juxtaposes industry and idleness In these scenes the more affluent figures are identified by their attire as they adopt meditative poses such as this one here and clearly this one as well Interestingly the work was ofte promoted as antidote to melancholy yet leisure was also considered essential for the proper contemplation of the human condition thus for those who could afford it me with darkness or night as the optimal setting Relevant here is that since the 1720s English poets had been exploring the irrational and the uncanny with early pioneers of this new gothic genre being nicknamed the graveyard school Some of the most widely read examples focusing on death decay and ruin as in ruined buildings were James Harvey's Meditations Among the Tombs and Contemplation of the Night Edward Young's Night Thoughts Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard the haunting and often enigmatic The tone of Wright's Scenes of Smiths Ironforgers and Earthstoppers certainly resonates with this poetic sentiment especially since some are set amidst the ruins of a church or monastery Now finally the concept that aligned itself with the gothic and the melancholic and equally marked the most profound rupture between old and new ways of creating and appreciating art in Brita was the sublime and it was darkness that emerged as the defining element Wright' s appreciation of the sublime is therefore a crucial factor in understanding why e adopted the 17th-century tradition of tenebrism incorporating candlelight and equally how it influenced his night scenes from the late 1760s In doing so his paintings from The Gladiator of 1765 and the Earthstopper of 1773 were engaged in the ongoing debate over classification and aesthetics the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty appreciation of beauty and sublimity and by the end of the 18th century the picturesque came to mean something like a picture Two seminal texts on this subject were published while Wright was based in London Hogarth's Analysis of Beauty from 1753 and Edmund Burke's A Philosophical Inquiry o the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful from 1757 While descriptions of the sublime varied throughout the 18th century commentators all agreed that the sensatio at the sensation was based on contemplating powerful scenes or objects —primarily natural phenomena that evoke awe and fear in the observer Burke himself was skeptical that the imitative arts as he referred to them could produce an authentic sublime effect but he offered some significant guidance in that direction categorizing the sublime into seven aspects: darkness obscurity privation or deprivation vastness magnificence loudness and suddenness—each capable of shocking us sensibilities to the point of disablement On one level for Wright to achieve a sublime register in pictorial terms he simply had to keep these categories in mind hence we can see how an ear The stopper corresponds to darkness and obscurity and the natural sublime just as the orrery evokes the notion of infinity and celestial bodies and therefore the cosmic sublime That Wrig was attempting to penetrate the psychological dimension of the sublime as characterized by Edmund Burke is perhaps most evident in The Air Pump where Burke's premise that being confronted by pain and danger and the feeling of terror—the ruling principle of the sublime—yet without actually being in such circumstances as a quote from Edmund Burke suggests results in a certain kind of ense as he called it delight in the spectator—the frisson between fear pleasure and self- preservation to use Edmund Burke's term is precisely what George Stubbs has set out to provoke in his a horse devoured by a lion a theme he continued to develop and exhibit for years to come Could Stubbs's dramatization of the Burkean sublime have emboldened Wright to paint with unflinching accuracy: human beings witnessing an experiment involving a white cockatoo or cockatiel—a rarity in Britain at the time but deprived of oxygen and near to death Wright shows the lecturer staring straight at us his left hand forever suspended above the glass receiver Will he open the valve in time We will never know Thank you