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© METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART later examples were especially important references
forWright’s future development, since they featured
Fig. 23. JOSEPH WRIGHT, Study of Clouds in Italian Landscape greater clarity and precision in their rendering and
Sketchbook, c. 1774, graphite and grey wash. Metropolitan Museum were often accompanied with inscriptions that de-
of Art, NewYork, Rogers Fund, 1957, 57.102.1. scribed subtle meteorological changes.
caverns. It was presumably at this time that he visited lll
the site ofVirgil’sTomb, located about eight miles out-
side the city near the village of Pozzuoli, although no T he artist returned to Rome by November 11th,
direct graphic evidence has survived. Virgil’s ashes 1774, and soon afterward began working on
had been placed in a tomb outside Naples on the Via several oil paintings of southern scenes: two cavern
Pluteolana, originally between the first and second pictures based on sketches done along the Bay of
milestones. The tomb subsequently disappeared and Naples,24 and An Eruption of MountVesuvius.25 Wright
in 1554 the following inscription was placed there:
‘Qui cineres? tumuli haec vestigia: conditur olim/ Ille hic 21. First noted by Louis Hawes, ‘Constable’s Sky Sketches,’ Journal of
qui cecinit pascua, rura, duces’. theWarburg and Courtauld Institutes, No. 32 (1969), pp. 344-365,
esp. 350-351, and later discussed by Egerton, Wright of Derby, no.
Along with his landscapes from this same period 77, pp. 141-142.
Wright also studied various atmospheric phenomena
in both daylight and at night.These independent cloud 22. Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, ‘Study of Clouds by
sketches were exceptionally rare for their time, pre- Moonlight,’ c. 1771, black and white chalks on light blue paper, 9
ceded only by Alexander Cozens’ exercises produced 5/8 x 14 in. (1996-1/82), published in Jane Wallis, JosephWright of
approximately a decade before.21 Though there were Derby, 1734-1797, exhibition catalogue, Derby, 1997, no. 95, p. 71.
indications of earlier observations of sky formations
and different colour gradations in diverse situations 23. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NewYork, ‘Study of Clouds’ in
(Fig. 22),22 Wright’s Italian sketchbooks contained Sketchbook I, c. 1774, graphite, pen and ink, and grey wash, 9
several more drawings of this kind (Fig. 23).23 The 3/16 x 6 3/4 in. (Rogers Fund, 57.101.1, unnumbered folios).
Cf. additional examples in ‘Jo:Wright Book of Sketches,’ British
Museum, passim. See also ‘Italian Journal,’ in Barker, ‘Documents
Relating to Joseph Wright ‘of Derby’(1734-1797),’ pp. 67-68 and
nn. 50-51.
24. Benedict Nicholson, JosephWright of Derby: Painter of Light, 2 vols.,
London and NewYork, 1968,Vol. I, nos. 281-282, p. 76, pls. 175-
176, and Egerton, Wright of Derby, nos. 97-98, pp. 159-162.
25. Letter to Nancy Wright, 4 May 1775, copied in ‘Hannah Wright’s
Memoir,’ cited in Barker, ‘Documents Relating to Joseph Wright
‘of Derby’ (1734-1797),’ p. 85. An earlier reference to this
picture can be found in the correspondence from Father John
Thorpe in Rome to the 8th Baron Arundell of Wardour,Wilts
County Record Office (MSS. 2667), cited in Nicholson, Joseph
Wright of Derby,Vol. I, pp. 8-9, 60-61, and 75-76.The
identification of the actual picture painted at this time is contested
(see ibid,Vol. I, no. 275, p. 77, pl. 168, and Egerton, Wright of
Derby, no. 101, pp. 166-167).
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