Page 62 - Joseph Wright of Derby: Virgils's Tomb & The Grand Tour.

© DERBY MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY
© DERBY MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY

Fig. 24. JOSEPH WRIGHT, A Philosopher by Lamplight, Fig. 25. JOSEPH WRIGHT, The Earthstopper on the Banks of the Derwent, 1773, oil on

1769, oil on canvas. Derby Museum and Art Gallery. canvas. Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby.

remained in Italy through the summer of 1775, mak- Castle of St.Angelo, at Rome), and in 1778 he displayed
ing trips to Florence, Venice, and Turin, but these four additional paintings that reflected similar
cities ‘did not answer my expectations; when one has seen themes at the Royal Academy (another version of An
Rome, other places suffer by comparison.’26 After returning Eruption of MountVesuvius; A Grotto by the Sea-Side, in
to England by late September, his experiences abroad the Kingdom of Naples; The Girandola,A Grand Firework
immediately began to bear important fruit. In 1776 Exhibited at the Castle of St. Angelo, in Rome; and Nep-
he exhibited two pictures based on his Italian studies tune’s Grotto atTivoli).27 All of them were landscapes,
at the Society of the Artists of Great Britain (An Erup- which was all the more surprising since, as Benedict
tion of Mount Vesuvius and The Annual Girandola, at the Nelson noted, Wright had only presented publicly
two paintings with prominent scenery before leaving
26. ‘Italian Journal,’ in Barker, ‘Documents Relating to Joseph Wright for Italy (A Philosopher by Lamplight, also known as An
‘of Derby’(1734-1797),’ p. 65. Hermit Studying Anatomy in 1769 [Fig. 24], and The
Earthstopper on the Banks of the Derwent in 1773 [Fig.
27. Listed in Nicholson, JosephWright of Derby,Vol. I, pp. 274-275. 25]). Compared to the earlier works, the later land-
28. Noted by Duncan Bull, ‘England and Italy. Sudbury and London,’ scapes were admired for their greater luminosity and
a larger sense of space, which inspired continued ex-
exhibition review, The Burlington Magazine,Vol. 129, No. 1016 ploration of this branch of his art.28
(November 1987), pp. 761-762.

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