Page 16 - Joseph Wright of Derby: Virgils's Tomb & The Grand Tour.

A t a time when my career was in a state of transition from being a director at Colnaghi to the re-founding of
my father’s gallery in 1978 two individuals were constantly generous in sharing advice and knowledge.Thus
they remain firmly fixed in my memories of this period with a particularly affectionate warm glow. One was Ellis
Waterhouse, never too busy to come from Oxford and see a new baroque picture, the other was Ben Nicholson
who likewise had constant curiosity about anything new, and particularly Caravaggesque, that might be appearing
on the market. Further, the redoubtable Federico Zeri never failed to visit the gallery when in London, insatiably
seeking new photos for his fototeca yet once again always free with attributional advice, though in reality the real
draw was his delight in taking coffee with my former gallery manager, the incomparable Emily Farrow, with whom
he relished exchanging risqué limericks. She, however, always rising to the challenge, would cap him each time
with a novel response from an arcane repertory that would always unfailingly enchant the somewhat daunting,
learned sage of Mentana eliciting a series of chuckles.

During the years 1977-82 I was to see quite a lot of Ben Nicholson and was privileged to tête-à-tête dinners at his
flat which, though maybe a trifle lacking in culinary finesse, always scintillated. On most occasions we discussed
the state of the market (then burgeoning once more after an acute recession and awash with what fond memories
recall as marvellous paintings), politics and of course Caravaggism in all its aspects. At no time would I then have
been able to display a knowledge of, or indeed, interest in Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797).The ‘Englishness
of English Art’ was something akin to an alien land since, after all, I had only just recently progressed from the
rigidity of an enforced study of ‘classicism’ at the Courtauld under John Shearman to the realisation that I might
actually have a passion for the baroque in all its forms. Three decades later the extreme dearth of good Italian and
French and Spanish old masters has served to broaden my horizons. Just as I once when in my twenties and thirties
used to detest finicky Victorian red brick or ‘Gothicised’ architecture I now look at its many facets and details and
textures with acute interest. So it is with ‘English Art’ and thus it is that, for the second year running, the Gallery’s
most important work is by a British painter. I was quite recently deeply impressed by a viewing of the Tate’s
exhibition of John Martin who is clearly far more than just ‘theatrical’. I have equally therefore come to appreciate
that JosephWright is a world class painter and that the painting we present in this catalogue, Virgil’sTomb, is a seminal
early prototype of the Romantic Movement, well in advance of European counterparts as we set out to show. It is
for this reason that I think it entirely appropriate that this catalogue should be dedicated to the memory of one of
my guiding lights, Ben Nicholson, whose two volume monograph onWright published in 1968 remains a benchmark.

This is the forty-fourth catalogue issued by this gallery since 1978 and notwithstanding its numerous siblings
whose issue have always evoked in me a sense of excitement mixed with trepidation, pride and satisfaction as each
newcomer rolled off the presses and bindery – this catalogue in particular has pleased the ‘publisher’ immensely.

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A s I was writing this extensively revised and rather personalised foreword, for which I crave indulgence, my cousin,
Freddy Godshaw (Godschalk), brought to my attention a publication issued in 2011 by the Aktivesmuseum –

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