CHAPTER III
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CANDLE-LIGHT SUBJECTS.--“THE GLADIATOR” PICTURE.--COMMENCES TO PAINT LANDSCAPES IN 1772.--LIST OF PICTURES EXHIBITED AT THE SOCIETY OF ARTISTS’ ROOMS.--LIST OF PICTURES EXHIBITED AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY.--WRIGHT HOLDS AN EXHIBITION IN 1785, OF HIS OWN WORKS, IN LONDON.--WRIGHT’S GENEROSITY IN GIVING PICTURES TO HIS FRIENDS.--WRIGHT, A PIONEER IN WATER-COLOUR PAINTING.
It is interesting to note in the life of an artist who showed such varied talents, at what periods he entered on the different walks of art, which he trod with such success. We know that Wright painted portraits only whilst under Hudson’s tuition; and even for several years after his second period of study under that master, which was during the year 1756, he seems to have attempted nothing else. We are also able to all but fix the dates of many of his early candle-light and historical subjects, because they were exhibited at the rooms of the Society of Artists.[7] The first of these appeared in 1765, and was called “Three Persons Viewing the Gladiator[8] by Candle-light.” In the same way we can fix approximately the date of his first landscape as 1772.
From such records we may also conclude with some certainty that it was Wright’s own innate genius that impelled him to study those effects of artificial light with which his name is so strongly associated, for hitherto no English painter had attempted them, and he did not leave England till 1773.
His visit to Italy, in 1774-5, where he saw a grand Eruption of Vesuvius, merely turned his natural predilection for strange effects of light into a new channel. This eruption may be said to have been the father of his numerous landscapes of volcanoes and conflagrations. Of the eruption alone he painted about eighteen pictures, each of which was treated in a manner differing more or less from the rest. In his striking pictures of sun and moonlight, which also began about this time, we see the same love for unusual and powerful effects of light.
From a letter in the possession of Lord Lansdowne, the owner of “The Gladiator,” which, by the courtesy of his lordship, I am able to transcribe, we learn that this picture was not sold until the year 1772. In Wright’s MS. book the price named is £40. and Dr. Bates is entered as the purchaser. This price must be an error, or only a part payment, as will be seen from the letter, which is from Wright to Dr. Bates, and was sold with the picture. There is little doubt that this was the picture mentioned in the letter, although it is not referred to by name.
“Derby, 12th September, 1772.
“DEAR SIR,
“Last night I received a letter from our friend Burdett, whereby I understood you consent to give me £130 for the picture. I must let it go at that price, as I am under a necessity of immediately raising £1,200 on a mortgage, and have only £1,000 by me, it was on this account I offered it to you at 125 guineas. I shall say no more on the subject, only desire for my interest, you will never mention what you gave for it, as it might much injure me in the future sale of my pictures, and when I send you a receipt for the money I shall acknowledge a greater sum.
“I wish it may be convenient for you to remit me the money immediately, as Michaelmas is the time fixed for the payment of the money, and though I have lent more money than I now want, upon the person’s bare note, and without interest, I know not a man that would lend me a hundred pounds without high interest and good security. You see how I am circumstanced, and have no doubt but you’ll immediately assist me with the money if you can. I think myself much obliged to you for offering me the assistance any of your pictures can give me.
“I am, with compliments to Mrs. Bates, though not known,
“Dear sir,
“Your affectionate friend,
“JO. WRIGHT.”
Upon examining the following list of his pictures exhibited at the Rooms of the Society of Artists, it will be noticed that for ten years, from 1765 to 1775, only one landscape is mentioned; but on his return from Italy, in 1776, he exhibited his first picture of Vesuvius, and from this date he evidently paid much more attention to landscape, and almost ceased to paint candle-light effects, which, up to that date, had, with portraiture, almost entirely engrossed his pencil.
Whilst in Italy he made many landscape sketches from nature, which supplied him on his return to England with the greater part of the material for the landscapes he produced from 1775 to within a few years of his death, although these were interspersed with scenes from Scotland, Derbyshire, and the Lake District.
Wright was at an early period elected a member of the Society of Artists, to whose exhibitions in the Spring Gardens he contributed many years, as will be seen from the following lists extracted from the catalogues. It is to be regretted that at this date it was not the custom to mention in catalogues the names of the persons whose portraits were exhibited, and in consequence of the lapse of time, it is now often impossible to identify them.
PICTURES EXHIBITED BY JOSEPH WRIGHT AT THE EXHIBITIONS OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTISTS OF GREAT BRITAIN.
1765.
No. 163. Three Persons Viewing the Gladiator by Candle-light. „ 164. A Conversation Piece.
1766.
„ 195. A Philosopher giving that lecture on the Orrery, in which a lamp is put in the place of the sun. „ 196. A Portrait of a Lady, whole length. „ 197. Head of a Gentleman.
1767.
„ 188. Portrait of a Gentleman, whole length. „ 189. A Small Candle-light. „ 190. Ditto, its Companion.
1768.
„ 193. An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump. „ 194. Two Candle-lights.
1769.
„ 196. A Philosopher by Candle-light. „ 197. An Academy by Candle-light. „ 198. A Lady. „ 199. A Conversation.
1770.
„ 154. Portrait of a Gentleman, Painted by an Artificial Light. „ 155. A Conversation of Girls. „ 303. Child with a Dog.
1771.
„ 200. A Lady and Child, whole length. „ 201. A Blacksmith’s Shop. „ 202. A Small Ditto, viewed from without. „ 203. A Small Conversation. „ 204. Portrait of an Officer. „ 205. A Young Lady Undressing by Candle-light. „ 206. An Old Woman Knitting by Candle-light. „ 209. The Alchymist, in Search of the Philosopher’s Stone, discovers Phosphorus, and prays for the successful conclusion of his operation, as was the custom of the Ancient Chymical Astrologers.
1772.
„ 369. A Portrait of an Officer, small, whole length. „ 370. A Portrait of an Officer, small, whole length. „ 371. A Landscape. „ 372. A Blacksmith’s Shop. „ 373. An Iron Forge. „ 417. A Moonlight.
1773.
„ 370. A Captive King. „ 371. An Iron Forge, viewed from without. „ 372. An Earth Stopper on the Banks of the Derwent.
1774.
„ 321. The Old Man and Death.
1775.
„ 223. A Smith’s Forge, altered from his first design.
1776.
„ 147. An Eruption of Mount Vesuvius. „ 148. The Annual Girandola, at the Castle of St. Angelo, at Rome.
1791.
„ 291. Antigonus in the Storm. (From the “Winter’s Tale.”) „ 220. Romeo[9] and Juliet. The Tomb Scene. “Noise again! then I’ll be brief.”
N.B.--The above Pictures were exhibited last year in the Academy; but having been placed in an unfortunate position, owing (as Mr. Wright supposes) to their having arrived too late in London, and have since received alterations, he is desirous they should again meet the public eye.
„ 221. Inside an Italian Stable. „ 222. Part of the Colosseum. „ 223. Moonlight, View on the Lake Albano, Italy, Monte Jora in the distance.
TOTAL, 43 PICTURES.
PICTURES EXHIBITED BY JOSEPH WRIGHT AT THE EXHIBITION OF THE FREE SOCIETY OF ARTISTS.
1783.
No. 4. Moonlight. „ 89. Boy Blowing a Bladder.
TOTAL, 2 PICTURES.
In 1777, Wright does not appear to have exhibited at all, but in the next year he commenced to send pictures to the Royal Academy, a practice he continued with some interruptions until 1794.
PICTURES EXHIBITED BY JOSEPH WRIGHT AT THE EXHIBITIONS OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY.
1778.
No. 357. An Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, with the Procession of St. Januarius’s Head. „ 358. A Grotto by the Sea-side, in the Kingdom of Naples, with Banditti; a Sunset. „ 359. Edwin, from Dr. Beattie’s Minstrel. „ 360. Sterne’s Captive. „ 361. The Girandola, a grand firework exhibited at the Castle of St. Angelo, in Rome. „ 411. Neptune’s Grotto at Tivoli.
1779.
„ 358. The Girandola, or Grand Firework at the Castle of St. Angelo, in Rome; Companion to the Vesuvius he painted last year. „ 359. Virgil’s Tomb, with the Figure of Scilius Italicus, who bought an estate enriched with this very tomb. He was frequent in his visits to this monument of his master. „ 360. Neptune’s Grotto at Tivoli. „ 361. Two Boys, whole length.
1780.
„ 158. Eruption of Mount Vesuvius. „ 203. A Cavern, with the Figure of Julia, banished thither by her grandfather, Augustus.
1781.
„ 23. A Philosopher by Lamplight. „ 61. Cavern in the Gulf of Salernum, Sunset. „ 100. Maria, from Sterne, a companion to the Picture of Edwin, exhibited three years ago. „ 112. Cavern in the Gulf of Salernum, Moonlight. „ 181. Portraits of Three Children. „ 224. Virgil’s Tomb by Moonlight. „ 245. Portrait of a Gentleman.
1782.
„ 165. Two Young Gentlemen in the Character of Archers. „ 231. Old Man’s Head, in the character of an Apostle.
1788.
„ 81. Mæcena’s Villa at Tivoli. „ 83. Cicero’s Villa, near Salerno. „ 96. View near Mare Chiare, on the shore of Paussillipo. „ 98. The Convent of St. Cosimato, near Vicobaro, and Remains of the Claudian Aqueduct, on the River Arno. „ 234. View in the Alps, on the side next Italy, in the Duchy of Milan.
1789.
„ 9. A Moonlight. „ 26. Cicero’s Villa, an Evening. „ 67. The Prison of the Capitol. „ 74. Ruins of the Colloseo, in Rome. „ 87. A Boy and Girl Engaged with a Bladder. „ 107. Ruins of the Colloseo, in Rome, with Banditti. „ 137. View of Cromford, near Matlock. „ 153. A Girl Blowing a Charcoal Stick. „ 236. A Dead Soldier, his Wife and Child, vide Langhorne’s Poems.
1790.
„ 1. Romeo and Juliet, Act V., Scene last. „ 221. Scene from the “Winter’s Tale,” Act iii., latter end of the sixth scene.
1794.
„ 107. An Eruption of Vesuvius. „ 232. A Lake at Dunkeld, in Scotland, Evening. „ 233. A Village on Fire.
TOTAL, 40 PICTURES.
From the foregoing list of Wright’s contributions to Exhibitions of the Royal Academy, it will be noticed that he did not send any between the years 1782 and 1788. This abstention was caused by his resentment at the conduct of the Academy, in consequence of which he refused the full diploma which the Royal Academy offered to him in 1784.
From the following extract from the _Athenæum_ of January 31st, 1885, it appears that Wright was not the only artist of distinction who at that period had to complain of the treatment of the Council of the Royal Academy.
“In the archives of the Royal Academy is a letter which has special interest. It is a complaint addressed by Gainsborough to the Council of the Academy, about the manner in which his most important contribution to the gathering of 1784 had been treated, being placed in a position, he says, unbecoming its character as a group of Royal portraits, and unjust to himself as a R.A. In the end, with several other works the artist left at the Hanging Committee’s discretion, the picture was withdrawn, so that the Academy gathering of 1784 comprised no Gainsborough.
“The artist abandoned the Academy altogether, and during the four remaining years of his life, he sent no more pictures.”
The doors of the Academy being thus practically closed to Wright, he determined on another plan for bringing his works under public notice. In 1785 he opened an exhibition, composed of twenty-five of his own pictures, at Mr. Robins’s Rooms, Covent Garden, London. This is an early instance of those exhibitions devoted to the compositions of a single artist which have of late become so frequent. In the catalogue of it which we are enabled to reprint, it will be noticed that fifteen out of the twenty-five works exhibited were not for sale.
A CATALOGUE OF PICTURES,
Painted by J. WRIGHT, of Derby,
And EXHIBITED at
Mr. ROBINS’S Rooms, (late Langford’s) No. 9, under the _Great Piazza, Covent Garden_.
All have their brilliant moments, when alone They paint, as if some star propitious shone; Yet then, e’en then the hand but ill conveys The bolder grace, that in the fancy plays. Hence, candid critics, this sad truth confest, Accept what least is bad, and deem it best; Lament the soul in error’s thraldom held, Compare life’s span with art’s extensive field; Know that ere perfect taste matures the mind, Or perfect practice to that taste be join’d, Comes age, comes sickness, comes contracting pain, And chills the warmth of youth in every vein. MASON’S Translation of Du Fresnoy’s Poem on Painting, verse 695, &c.
1785.
Printed by J. BARKER, Russell-Court, Drury-Lane.
A CATALOGUE.
N. B. _Such pictures as are marked with an asterisk (*) are to be disposed of._
No. I.
The Lady in Milton’s Comus, verse 221.
Was I deceiv’d, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night? I did not err, there does a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night, And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.
No. II. *
A Companion to the preceding picture. The Widow of an Indian Chief watching the arms of her deceased husband.
This picture is founded on a custom which prevails among some of the savage tribes in America, where the widow of an eminent warrior is used to sit the whole day, during the first moon after his death, under a rude kind of trophy, formed by a tree lopped and painted; on which the weapons and martial habiliments of the dead are suspended. She remains in this situation without shelter, and perseveres in her mournful duty at the hazard of her own life from the inclemencies of weather.
No. III. *
William and Margaret. From the celebrated ballad in Pierce’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. 3. xvi.
’Twas at the silent solemn hour When night and morning meet, In glided Margaret’s grimly ghost, And stood at William’s feet.
No. IV. *
View of the Cascade of Turni in Italy.
No. V.
Virgil’s Tomb by moonlight.
No. VI.
The Lake of Nemi. A sunset.
No. VII. *
Julia, the daughter of Augustus, and supposed mistress of Ovid, deploring her exile, by moonlight, in a cavern of the island to which she was banished.
No. VIII. *
The happy meeting of Hero and Leander, after his swimming across the Hellespont in a tranquil night.
No. IX. *
A Companion to the preceding picture. The Storm in which Leander was drowned.
No. X.
A Landscape. Morning.
No. XI.
A Sea Shore. Evening.
No. XII.
Matlock High Tor. Moonlight.
No. XIII.
The Maid of Corinth. From Mr. Hayley’s essay on painting, verse 126, &c.
O, Love! it was thy glory to impart Its infant being to this magic art; Inspir’d by thee, the soft Corinthian maid Her graceful lover’s sleeping form portray’d; Her boading heart his near departure knew, Yet long’d to keep his image in her view; Pleas’d she beheld the steady shadow fall By the clear lamp upon the even wall; The line she trac’d with fond precision true, And drawing, doated on the form she drew.
No. XIV. *
A Companion to the preceding picture. Penelope unravelling her web, by lamp-light. From Pope’s Homer, the second book of the Odyssey, verse 99, &c.
Elusive of the bridal day, she gives Fond hopes to all, and all with hopes deceives. Did not the sun thro’ heaven’s wide azure roll’d For three long years the royal fraud behold, While she, laborious in delusion, spread The spacious loom, and mix’d the various thread? Where, as to life, the wondrous figures rise. Thus spoke the inventive queen, with artful sighs: “Tho’ cold in death Ulysses breathes no more, “Cease yet awhile to urge the bridal hour; “Cease, till to great Laertes I bequeath “A talk of grief, his ornaments of death; “Lest when the Fates his royal ashes claim, “The Grecian matrons taint my spotless name, “When he, whom living mighty realms obey’d, “Shall want in death, a shroud to grace his shade.” Thus she: at once the generous train complies, Nor fraud mistrusts in virtue’s fair disguise: The work she ply’d; but, studious of delay, By night revers’d the labours of the day; While thrice the sun his annual journey made, The conscious lamp the midnight fraud survey’d.
No. XV.
A distant View of Vesuvius from the shore of Posilipo.
No. XVI. *
The Companion, in the gulf of Salerno.
No. XVII. *
A Landscape. Moonlight.
No XVIII.
A View in Dovedale. Morning.
No. XIX.
Ditto, its Companion. Evening.
No. XX.
Portrait of an Artist.
No. XXI. *
Guy de Lusignan in Prison.
No. XXII.
Portraits of three (of Mr. Newton’s) Children.
No. XXIII.
A Wood Scene. Moonlight.
No. XXIV. *
A View of Gibraltar during the destruction of the Spanish Floating Batteries, on the 13th of September, 1782.
It may be proper to inform the spectator, that the painter’s original plan was to execute two pictures, as companions to each other, on this event so glorious to our country. In the first (which is now exhibited) he has endeavoured to represent an extensive view of the scenery combined with the action. In the second (which he hopes to finish hereafter) he proposes to make the action his principal object, and delineate the
## particulars of it more distinctly.
No. XXV.
Portrait of a Gentleman.
F I N I S.
Wright so far forgave the injury he considered the Royal Academy had inflicted upon him, as to contribute to their exhibitions in the years 1788, 1789, 1790, and 1794; though from the correspondence printed in
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