Curator's introduction to Wright of Derby: From the Shadows

Excellent online introduction from the National Gallery to their Wright of Derby exhibition.

Christine Riding led us through the main themes of the show starting with discussing the technique displayed in these works using light and dark to dramatic effect can called Tenebrism. She examined how the ideas came from Caravaggio but Wright used them in a secular context and, having not seen the work in the flash, but worked out how to do it from experimentation.

She talked about the genre of works showing study by candlelight became popular and how it reflected that nighttime was seen as the time for learning feeding into ideas of refinement and dedication. This led her to examine the two main works in the show “The Orrey” and “Bird in an Air Pump” and the fashion for scientific learning.

Finally she looked at how Wright’s style changed in the 1770s, still using the dramatic effects of light and dark, but focusing on working class labour such as blacksmiths and how this reflected ideas of the sublime at the time.

I went to the exhibition the next day, blog post incoming, and this talk proved a great help in navigating the show.