National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Italian Landscape
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

Wright's artistic interests varied widely, ranging from portraiture and scientific topics in his early "candlelight" period to popular subjects, romantic history, literature, and landscapes in later years. This painting dates from the end of Wright's career. It is a romantic and fantastic blend of his memories of Italy and the countryside of his native Derby.

In the foreground, a rustic figure sits by the side of a rock-strewn path; he is a small, lonely human presence in this broad and arresting view of nature. A path winds above him to the villas in the hills, while to the right the land gives way to a rolling meadow, a still lake, and a distant mountain. In the background great masses of earth rise dramatically, culminating in a long silhouette against the pale blue sky.

Wright's unorthodox use of color in the cliffs has an expressionistic quality that seems to foreshadow the works of later artists. At a distance from the painting the sharp contrast between the colors emphasizes the geometry of the forms. Viewed closer, the forms begin to flatten out into abstract patterns. While Wright's vision of nature is romantic in its use of light and color and in its pervasive nostalgic mood, it is also classical in its purity of line and form and in its controlled and balanced composition.

Inscription

lower left: I Wright / Pinx / 1790

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Mr. Mills, Yorkshire.[1] A.J. Bentley, by 1831;[2] by descent to John Bentley [1797-1886], Birch House, near Manchester, and Portland Place, London; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 15 May 1886, no. 71); purchased by F.B. Benedict Nicolson, London, until 1960. (Durlacher Brothers, London); sold 11 April 1960 to (Thomas Agnew & Sons, London); sold 6 July 1960 to Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia;[3] gift 1983 to NGA.

[1] According to the catalogue of the Bentley sale, Christie's, London, 1886. Nicolson identified Mr. Mills with John Milnes of Wakefield, Yorkshire, who was one of Wright's principal patrons, but the Washington picture is not identifiable with any picture Milnes is known to have owned. (Benedict Nicolson, Joseph Wright of Derby: Painter of Light, 2 vols., London, 1968: I:260.)

[2] He lent the painting to Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch and English Masters, Royal Manchester Institution, 1831, no. 145, as Italian Scene--Convent of St. Cosimata.

[3] Stockbook no. 3055, Thomas Agnew & Sons, London.

Exhibition History

1831
Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch and English Masters, Royal Manchester Institution, 1831, no. 145, as Italian Scene - Convent of St. Cosimata.
1963
Painting in England, 1700-1850: Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1963, no. 39, repro., pl. 222.
1969
Joseph Wright of Derby: A Selection of Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1969-1970, no. 15, repro.
1986
Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986, unnumbered checklist
1990
Joseph Wright of Derby, Tate Gallery, London; Grand Palais, Paris; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990, no. 119, color repro.
1993
Glorious Nature: British Landscape Painting, 1750-1850, Denver Art Museum, 1993-1994, no. 22, repro.
1999
An Enduring Legacy: Masterpieces from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1999-2000, no cat.

Bibliography

1968
Nicolson, Benedict. Joseph Wright of Derby: Painter of Light. 2 vols. London, 1968: 1:92, 260, no. 292; 2:pl. 311.
1971
Cummings, Frederick. "Joseph Wright at the National Gallery." The Art Quarterly 34 (1971): 477, fig. 7.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 440, repro.
1992
Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 350-352, repro. 351.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 153, repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 281, no. 228, color repro.

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