| Earthstoppers | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Joseph Wright of Derby |
| Year | 1773 |
| Dimensions | 97 cm× 121 cm(38 in× 48 in) |
| Location | Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby |
Earthstopper on the Banks of the Derwent is a painting by Joseph Wright of Derby originally completed in 1773. The scene shows a man digging at nighttime beside the River Derwent in Derbyshire.
The painting shows a man blocking foxholes so that a subsequent foxhunt could kill the fox without the animal having the opportunity to hide underground. This man was known as an Earthstopper.
Joseph Wright was known for his studies under unusual lighting and this can be seen here combined with landscape. Wright completed few notable paintings that included landscapes before he went on his tour of Italy where he created a large number including those that showed the eruption of Vesuvias. Benedict Nicolson, who was an authority on Joseph Wright believed this painting inspired lines of poetry [1] in a collection named after and in aid of the preservation of Needwood Forest. The lines were written by Francis Noel Clarke Mundy, who later commissioned six Wright portraits, including one of himself. These three quarter length portraits were of himself and five of his friends in the uniform of Mundy's own private hunt. Mundy's lines read:
Whilst as the silver moonbeams rise,
Imagin'd temples strike my eyes
With tottering spire, and mouldering wall,
And high roof nodding to it's fall, -
His lanterns gleaming down the glade,
One, like a sexton with his spade,
Comes from their caverns to exclude
The midnight prowlers from the wood... [2]
It is apt that Wright who had based his own paintings like Miravan on literature should, in turn, inspire poetry in the group that included Erasmus Darwin and Anna Seward.
The painting was exhibited in 1773. It was bought by Philip Yorke who became a fellow of the Royal Society and was the 2nd Earl of Hardwicke. The painting remained in the Earl's family until it was sold by the fifth Earl [3] who was nicknamed "Champagne Charlie". [4] Coincidentally Charles Yorke (the 5th Earl) was known for his spendthrift ways and Disraeli appointed him, at the request of the Prince of Wales, to the title of Master of the Buckhounds [5] where he was his majesty's representative at Ascot. The painting was eventually bought by Benedict Nicolson (Wright's biographer) [3] who sold it via the Artfund into the collection of Derby Museum and Art Gallery. [6]
Joseph Wright, styled Joseph Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution".
Earl of Hardwicke is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1754 for Philip Yorke, 1st Baron Hardwicke, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain from 1737 to 1756. He had already been created Baron Hardwicke, of Hardwicke in the County of Gloucestershire, in 1733, and was made Viscount Royston at the same time as he was given the earldom. These titles were also in the Peerage of Great Britain.
Derby Museum and Art Gallery is a museum and art gallery in Derby, England. It was established in 1879, along with Derby Central Library, in a new building designed by Richard Knill Freeman and given to Derby by Michael Thomas Bass. The collection includes a gallery displaying many paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby; there is also a large display of Royal Crown Derby and other porcelain from Derby and the surrounding area. Further displays include archaeology, natural history, geology, military collections and world cultures. The Art Gallery was opened in 1882.
Charles Philip Yorke, 5th Earl of Hardwicke,, styled Viscount Royston until 1873, was a British aristocrat, Conservative politician and dandy.
Daniel Parker Coke, was an English barrister and Member of Parliament.
A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery, or the full title, A Philosopher giving that Lecture on the Orrery in which a lamp is put in place of the Sun, is a 1766 painting by Joseph Wright of Derby depicting a lecturer giving a demonstration of an orrery – a mechanical model of the solar system – to a small audience. It is now in the Derby Museum and Art Gallery The painting preceded his similar An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump.
Francis Noel Clarke Mundy was an English poet, landowner, magistrate and, in 1772, Sheriff of Derbyshire. His most noted poem was written to defend Needwood Forest which was enclosed at the beginning of the 19th century.
Needwood Forest was a large area of ancient woodland in Staffordshire, England, which was largely lost at the end of the 18th century.
Wrightson Mundy was an English landowner, member of parliament for the Leicestershire constituency and, in 1737, Sheriff of Derbyshire.
Markeaton Park is a large public park located in Markeaton, Derby, 207 acres in size. It attracts one million visitors a year, making it one of the most visited parks in the East Midlands. Markeaton Park is an important part of Derby history, which was sold to the Mundy family in 1516. The Mundy family gave Markeaton Park to Derby City Council in the early 20th century, who now provide facilities and events throughout the year.
Romeo and Juliet: the Tomb Scene is a painting by Joseph Wright of Derby, completed by 1790, exhibited in 1790 and 1791, shown in the Derby Exhibition of 1839 in the Mechanics' Institute, and now displayed in Derby Museum and Art Gallery. The painting exhibits Wright's famed skill with nocturnal and candlelit scenes. It depicts the moment in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet when Juliet, kneeling beside Romeo's body, hears a footstep and draws a dagger to kill herself. The line is "Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger!"
Virgil's Tomb is the title of at least three paintings completed by Joseph Wright of Derby between 1779 and 1785.
The Alchemist Discovering Phosphorus is a painting by Joseph Wright of Derby originally completed in 1771 then reworked in 1795. The full title of the painting is 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. It has been suggested that The Alchymist refers to the discovery of phosphorus by the Hamburg alchemist Hennig Brand in 1669. This story was often printed in popular chemical books in Wright's lifetime, and was widely known.
The Blacksmith's Shop is a recurring theme of five paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby. The version in his hometown was originally completed in 1771.
Miravan Breaking Open the Tomb of his Ancestors is a painting by Joseph Wright of Derby originally completed in 1772.
A Philosopher by lamplight is a painting by Joseph Wright of Derby. It is not known when Wright painted the picture, but it was first exhibited in 1769 in London with the Society of Artists. This was one of the earliest of many lamplight or candlelight paintings and portraits for which Wright is famed.
The Captive King is a sketch by Joseph Wright of Derby completed in 1772 or 1773. It depicts the French nobleman Guy de Lusignan held prisoner by Saladin. The sketch is thought to have been a preparation for the now-lost painting Guy de Lusignan in Prison.
The Captive, from Sterne is a painting by Joseph Wright of Derby completed in 1774 and now in the National Gallery of Canada. Sterne's Captive, first exhibited by the artist in 1778, is a similar painting by Wright in the Derby Museum and Art Gallery. The latter painting resulted in a rare engraving, as its purchaser commissioned a print run of only twenty copies before the copper printing plate was destroyed. In 2012, Derby Museum commissioned another Captive painting from Emma Tooth.
Vesuvius in Eruption is the subject of a series of thirty paintings and at least one preliminary sketch by Joseph Wright of Derby, who travelled in Italy in the years 1773-1775. It appears that whilst Wright was in Italy Vesuvius was not erupting.
Dovedale by Moonlight, 1784, is one of five paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby which uses the picturesque valley of Dovedale as its subject. These paintings were sometimes made as pairs with one showing the view by day and the other by moonlight. Wright admitted that he had not observed this scene directly, "Moon lights & fire lights are but a sort of work with me for I cant with impunity go out at night and study the former, & the latter I have seen but once, and at a time too, when I thought not of painting such effects."