As winter’s shadows fall across the land, it’s an appropriate moment for the National Gallery to open an exhibition by the master of shadows and light – Joseph Wright of Derby.
The exhibition is the latest where the gallery takes one of its important paintings, in this case The Air Pump, and brings together a number of the artist’s other works in other collections to form a family group.
Joseph Wright of Derby was a well-regarded portrait painter, but for a few years between 1765 and 1773 he created a series of Enlightenment-themed paintings. And this exhibition marks the first time in 35 years that many of his works have been brought together in the same room.
Joseph Wright was working right on the cusp of the enlightenment theory that knowledge of the arts, sciences and culture should be for everyone, and not locked away in grand houses and universities. And s an artist, he found himself working at a time of two major changes — the beginnings of summer art exhibitions open to the (paying) public for the first time, and the rise of printed reproductions of paintings.
With the aim of opening knowledge to the masses, many of Wright’s paintings are philosophical and scientific in nature, yet executed in a style that is also incredibly atmospheric.
It’s worth remembering that while exaggerated to a degree, the lighting was reasonably authentic for a time when people’s homes were lit with rush lights or candles, and the varying availability of moonlight affected working hours.
AT the heart of these atmospheric paintings is an atmospheric experiment — a demonstration of what happens to a bird when it is deprived of air.
This gruesome demonstration of the importance of dephlogisticated air (oxygen) to life was actually a common “parlour trick” to show modern science to admiring audiences.
Do notice the couple who seem more interested in each other than the bird’s plight — they were the artist’s friends who also owned some of his paintings, which are also in the exhibition.
A nice touch in the exhibition is the occasional extracts from his notebook, particularly the detail he went into for one scene of a farrier at work. He includes details about the horse he wanted, but at first glance, you might assume the horse wasn’t included. Look very closely, and you’ll just about spot it in the shadows.
To complement the air pump painting, they have an actual air pump on display, and have also included an orrery of the sort included in another of his works. His rather grindr-style painting of three men inspecting a statue of a very fit gladiator is also accompanied by the sculpture.
That’s the interesting contrast at work here, not just the heavy contrasts between light and darkness in the paintings, but also romantic paintings of solid science. He cleverly fused the awe of modern science with a romance about the exotic on display.
Well, sometimes, as I doubt a philosopher is actually going to be sitting in a cave with an oil lamp studying bones at night. That Diogenes-style painting to modern eyes probably looks more like something out of Lord of the Rings.
Wright probably chose the Tenebrist style (with shadows) because it was particularly suited to the newly popular market for printed copies of paintings. People unable to afford the originals could buy prints, and the exhibition includes prints of the paintings for you to compare.
It’s a modest-sized exhibition, but a very richly decorated one.
The exhibition, Wright of Derby: From the Shadows, is at the National Gallery until 10th May 2026.
Standard Ticket: £14
Concessions: £12
Under 18: Free
Art Fund : £7
Members: Free
Tickets are available here.
