Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Some tanning wear and marking due to age. 2 volumes. Pages great. Year 1968. Hardcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797) has until recently been regarded as a minor artist working in isolation in his native town some-what outside the main current of English art in the 18th century. This monograph sets out to demonstrate by text and illustrations that he stands not far below his greatest contem-poraries such as Reynolds and Gainsborough. In many respects however Wright is hardly comparable with them having made a special-ity of scenes in artificial light which link him rather to certain Dutch painters of the 17th century than to other English painters of his period. As is proved by his famous pictures An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump and A Philosopher giving a Lecture on the Orrery. Wright was also greatly interested in repre-senting experimental and industrial activity in the Midlands; in this respect he was a pioneer. He was besides an accomplished portrait and landscape painter and later in life executed a number of commissions for history pictures which show him to have been one of the early exponents of neo-classicism. In style and vision also his work offers considerable variety. Sometimes he was content to record strictly what was before him; on other occasions he converted landscapes into a dream by moon-light so far removed from the prosaic facts that he has come to be regarded as one of the pre-cursors of the main Romantic movement. Mr Nicolson’s book is among the largest and most comprehensive ever to be devoted to an English painter and as a biographical and inter-pretative study it attempts to present Wright in every aspect. It records what is known about his life affords a critical commentary on his painting; describes his friends and associates who included Erasmus Darwin. (OS)