THE LIFE AND WORKS
OF
JOSEPH WRIGHT, A.R.A.,
COMMONLY CALLED
“WRIGHT OF DERBY.”
_No._ 292
[Illustration: signature]
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF JOSEPH WRIGHT.
_Original picture in the possession of the Hon. Mrs. Griffiths._
_The Vignette of Joseph Wright on the Title Page is reproduced from
the Original Picture in the National Portrait Gallery._]
THE
LIFE AND WORKS
OF
JOSEPH WRIGHT, A.R.A.,
COMMONLY CALLED
“WRIGHT OF DERBY.”
[Illustration]
BY WILLIAM BEMROSE,
AUTHOR OF “A MANUAL OF WOOD CARVING,” ETC.
WITH A PREFACE BY COSMO MONKHOUSE.
_ILLUSTRATED WITH TWO ETCHINGS BY MR. F. SEYMOUR HADEN, AND OTHER
PLATES AND WOODCUTS._
London:
BEMROSE & SONS, 23, OLD BAILEY;
AND DERBY.
1885.
PREFACE.
The name of Joseph Wright, of Derby, once of high repute among English
Artists, has, during the last half-century and more, sunk, altogether
undeservedly, into a state of semi-oblivion. The Exhibition at Derby
in 1883 did, indeed, something to restore its fame, and it is to be
hoped that the present work may do yet more. Both book and exhibition
owe their existence mainly to the exertions of Mr. Bemrose, who in this
matter may be said to have been moved by a triple love--the love of
art, the love of family, and the love of locality. By his kindness I
am allowed here to aid in doing justice to an artist of whom not only
Derby, but England, should be proud.
Even if such a feat were possible, I should have no wish to compare
accurately the merits of Wright with those of his forerunners and
contemporaries. It will, however, be generally acknowledged that
between such names as Hogarth, Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Wilson, and
such as West, Northcote, Barry, and Hamilton, there is a gap--sensibly
to be felt. In this gap, but nearer to the greater than to the lesser
men, a place has of late years been found for Romney. It is but a
modest claim for Wright that the same distinction should be accorded to
him.
As a painter, his method, in relation to that of Reynolds and
Gainsborough, may be said to have been old-fashioned. His pure, precise
touches, his level surface, and clear enamelled colours, have not,
indeed, the variety of texture or the inspired freedom of a Franz
Hals. His practice was nearer to that of Van der Helst, and a host of
other illustrious artists to whom clear, clean, work was dear. Through
Kneller, and Hogarth, and Hudson, it came to him from Holland; and if
he did not reform it, he mastered it, and left his mark upon it. As a
colourist, he was scarcely an innovator; but he was still less of a
copyist. In this and most other respects a “naturalist,” he did not
allow a preference for certain harmonies to dominate his work; but
though his colour missed the charm of inspiration, it never failed in
harmony. He had the colour sense, and a command of the whole scale.
In his candle-light pieces the prevailing hues were determined by his
subject; but the way in which he united the blazing reds and yellows
of the central glare to the rich browns of his transparent shadows,
warmed and cooled these shadows with gleams of red coat and glimmers
of blue sash and white dress, and from the ruddy glow of the chamber
to the cool night outside, led the eye, untired, showed rare taste,
as well as skill. If we take his portraits by ordinary light, we find
the same fine power. The group of Mr. Newton’s children, with its blue
boy, its olive-green boy, and its girl in white and gold, set off with
rich green foliage and clusters of ripe cherries, is a masterpiece
of colour. In these daylight portraits, all the favourite colours
of the dress of the period are introduced and reconciled. The hues
and textures of the buff waistcoat, the “nankeen” breeches, the puce
slip, the cinnamon coat, and the pink shoes, are imitated with the
same sure skill, the same artistic impartiality. Only in regard to one
colour do we find a decided preference, and this is neither the blue
of Gainsborough nor the red of Reynolds, but what may be called the
green of Wright. Probably no other artist has treated this colour with
such variety. It tinges those bladders of which he was so fond; we
find it lightly in the stone-coloured coat of Mr. Cheslyn, and deeply
in the arm of his chair; in pale cucumber the artist robed his pitiful
“Maria”; and from that fine picture of himself in the National Portrait
Gallery we learn that it was green that he elected to wear in his youth
when he wished to look particularly spruce.
Of his effects of artificial light there is the less need to speak,
since what reputation he now preserves is founded upon them. The
engravings after Wright by Earlom, J. R. Smith, Val. Green, Pether,
and others, are still sought after, and the “Air Pump” is in the
National Gallery for all who wish to see. It may, however, be doubted
whether due recognition has, as yet, been given to the largeness of
design and the dignified simplicity of pose and gesture which lend an
almost classic style to such pictures as “The Orrery,” “The Air Pump,”
and “The Gladiator.” The Exhibition of 1883, while it confirmed
the reputation of such pictures, showed also that his rank as a
portrait painter was much higher than was supposed. In this branch of
art we find him submitting himself to his subject, and seeking rather
to express than to adorn it. He brings you, as few artists do, into
the presence of his sitters. As if alone and at ease, unconscious of
observation, they, whether men, women, or children, are all engaged
with their own thoughts and employments, just as they might have been
seen any day in library or garden. Many men of celebrity, not only
local, he painted--Arkwright and Whitehurst, Darwin and Strutt; but
the charm of his portraits does not depend on the fame of the sitter,
but on the power of the artist to seize a distinct individuality,
and to make each likeness for ever interesting as an authentic image
of a fellow-man. Unsophisticated by fashion or affectation, Wright’s
portraits are history in its simplest and truest form.
Of the pure charm of his children, some of the illustrations to this
volume, especially Mr. Seymour Haden’s painter-like etching of the
“Twins,” will speak. Sir Joshua painted children with more spirit and
with a livelier eye for fleeting charms of expression; but no artist
has painted them more freshly and truly than Wright. Another admirably
suggestive etching by Mr. Haden shows us the elegance of mien and
grace of sentiment which he could infuse into his more poetical
designs. His versatility was remarkable; but his culture, partly,
perhaps, on account of his secluded life, partly from his ill-health,
left many of his faculties undeveloped, and his imagination was crossed
by a vein of ingenuity which made him delight rather in resolving
problems than in indulging fancy. Nevertheless, the “Minstrel” and the
“Maria” are as good reflections as exist of that somewhat thin but
elegant strain of poetic sentiment which was in vogue in his day. He
has in these pictures preserved its gentleness and grace without its
falseness. A deeper note of pathos (and pathos unstrained) is touched
in the once famous “Dead Soldier.” In his “Death and the Woodman” we
find extreme terror depicted with all the force of the most modern
realist; and if he did not--(who did?)--prove himself equal to the
interpretation of Shakespeare, there is in Boydell’s Gallery no finer
head than that of his “Prospero.”
It will seem strange to many that Wright should in his day have ranked
even higher as a landscape painter than as a painter of men, but his
fireworks and conflagration effects were a novelty, and were executed
with a skill which must have then seemed astonishing. Now, perhaps,
even if they were done with the superior genius of a Turner, we should
not care overmuch for them. His more ordinary scenes from nature were
sometimes almost as good as Wilson’s, but generally wanted the warmth
and the air of that fine artist, and his composition was apt to be too
palpably ingenious.
Nevertheless, all abatement made, he was an original and able landscape
painter, and when we add this to his other claims, and remember how
thoroughly sincere his art was, how distinct his personality, it seems
hard that the latest History of English Art should not even mention
his name. True, it was written by a foreigner; and it is probable that
if M. Chesneau had visited Derby two years ago he would have awarded
Wright an honourable place among those artists whom he calls the Old
Masters of England.
COSMO MONKHOUSE.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
THE FAMILY OF WRIGHT 1