My Kid Could Paint That

Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture on the Orrery, 1766

Joseph Wright of Derby, The Dead Soldier, 1789

By LILI TUCKER

Avid readers and devoted scholars of the arts, if you haven't already, I implore you to fill your homes with the paintings of a certain Joseph Wright of Derby. Named by F.D Klingender as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the industrial revolution", Wright's work demonstrates the coalescing of science, art, and religion during the 18th century. As a member of the Lunar Scociety, one of England's most progressive intellectual association, Wright bumped shoulders with the likes of Josiah Wedgwood and Erasmus Darwin (father of Charles Darwin). Joseph Wright is truly a must-have for any budding amateur, and I promise, you will not be disappointed. In fact, you may find yourself subsequently enlightened just to know of him. If my assurance is not enough for you skeptics out there, I will use a single painting by our artist, M. Joseph Wight in hopes that you shall accept my solicitations. Thus, I give you 5 truths only Joseph Wright Understands, in such a manner that you may too.


1. An Enlightenment painting isn't an Enlightenment painting without a little Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro, the use of light (or lack thereof) to bring attention to certain aspects of a painting. Another word to throw about that's gaurenteed to make you sound like an A+ amateur. In all seriousness, modeled after the masters Rembrandt and Caravaggio, Wright's manipulation of light and dark is intrinsic to this paintings strength. In many of his paintings, Wright uses chiaroscuro to symbolize enlightenment. In his painting Lecture at the Orrery the faces of those listening and learning are lit with a knowledgable light while anyone else is, quite literally, left in the dark. In The Dead Soldier, however, Wright uses darkness paired with natural light to portray the lush greenery and richness of the landscape around the subject. The subject, however, is illuminated by a more artificial light source, coming from beyond the frame of reference. While typically denoting significance, the light here creates a bleakness to the vignette taking place. A deer-caught-in-headlights sort of feeling that gives the impression of a performance unfurling under a spotlight.


2. Soldiers in war are merely playthings and so too are people depicted in paintings
During this time, paintings of war were quite popular and usually fell into one of two categories. First, paintings that utilize the fine detail of portraiture to depict the relationship between officers and soldiers. And secondly, the use of military themes for the expression of sentiment and human emotion to bring the subject of war back to the feelings and thoughts of the enlightenment. Joseph Wright's The Dead Soldier falls into the latter category. As the child falls away from her mother's breast, we are invited into the scene. We see a mother and her husband faceless yet full of emotion. And we feel their emotion. In the same sense, the soldier here, like any other soldier in war, is not the main subject; proposing that men in war merely provide an occasion for the drama. And that's where the next truth comes into play.

3. Paintings don't have to be explicitly conceptualized to enlighten
In the beginning, artists used religion to portray certain aspects of human experience and emotion. As art became more secular, people began painting what they liked, what spoke to them. Self-portraits, still lives and pictures depicting people learning and being taught. What Wright achieved with The Dead Soldier is a conversion of the rationalism of the enlightenment with the birth of the modern age and emotion of the Romantic movement. We see this family torn a part and muted with grief and death. The fact that we are able to emphasize with these otherwise strangers shows the true power of not only Joseph Wright, but of this period in general.

4. When in doubt, contemporary literature is your best friend
Finally, I leave you with a tip from the great Joseph Wright of Derby himself. Bestowed unto me in a letter smelling of rosemary, M. Wright writes: There's no better illustration of modern times than modern literature. And with that, dear readers, I leave you with the following passage from John Langhorne's poem The Country Justice titled "Apology for Vagrants"

Perhaps on some inhospitable shore 

The houseless wretch a widow’d parent bore; 

Who, then no more by golden prospects led, 

Of the poor Indian begg’d a leafy bed. 

Cold on Canadian hills, or Minden’s plain, 

Perhaps that parent mourn’d her soldier slain; 

Bent o’er her babe, her eye dissolv’d in dew, 

The big drops mingling with the milk he drew, 

Gave the sad presage of his future years, 

The child of misery, baptiz’d in tears!

Two Girls Dressing a Kitten by Candlelight. Joseph Wright of Derby, 1768.

By ROSIE PASQUALINI

1. They ate and grew hungrier for it. Between meals the girls worked to neaten. To make pretty. But they had done it all before. The great armchair they dusted was barer than skin. The dishes they washed were born clean. Each edge was soiled in the holding.

Some days the girls got dressed up. Pretended they were going somewhere. Their dresses were brighter than their faces and twice as beautiful. The fabric felt the way a cloud looked. Unless Edith and Eva leaned the wrong way. Then their breaths faltered like wind growing stale. Then their cheeks tingled with decay. Stand up straight, said the silk, or drop dead. And so they lived on the verge of panic. Sisters of eleven and twelve. Trapped in the sweet nausea before a dream becomes a nightmare.

That evening they lit a candle. They sat at the table with their dolls. Edith pinned down a slew of plastic hair with a bow but the curls popped up one-by-one like grass unfurling after a storm.

“I wish there was enough for a braid,” she said. “Wouldn’t that be nice.”

Eva said nothing. She was watching the candle burn. The wax formed an eyeless socket. Oozing orange. The older girl followed its light out the window where an anonymous glow set the moon on fire. She smiled. The shadows sharpened her teeth.

Edith cleared her throat. “Wouldn’t that be nice.”

“I’m starving,” said Eva.

“We just had dinner.”

“Father told me there’s caramel apples.” She tasted the roof of her mouth. Probed the sores. The tender spots. “I could eat a whole one. Or five.”

“Could not,” said Edith. “And besides, if you ate all those sweets, who would marry you?”

Eva swallowed hard. Her own doll lay abandoned at one corner of the table. Its fingers were poised over the abyss. Arched without a care. Expecting to be saved.

She leaned left. Knocked the toy down. Listened for the thud. Its magnitude was mangled in the carpet and only a tremor remained. A soul-stirring memory of motion.

Then came the yelp.

Human, almost.

She leaned down and resurfaced with a kitten.

For an instant they faced each other. Its vertebrae pressed against her palm. She saw that it was dappled like autumn. It had a white belly. Its tail flickered against her wrist where her veins branched out. She saw its tongue. Saw taste buds receding into smooth pink. One ear reached tall. The other loped sideways. Little puffs of fur rose from the cavernous insides. Pulling in sound. At one point this animal had no fur. She remembered. Its eyes were sealed like buds. She remembered. The first thing it saw was an everything blur and that mind-shattering blast of color lived now in the flesh.

“Um,” said Edith. “That one’s Clayton.”

“I know which is which. Let’s dress him up.”

2. “What are you doing?”/ “Dressing him up.”/ “You’re hurting it.”/ “He likes it. He’s purring.”/ “They do that if they’re scared, too.”/ “No they don’t.”/ “Yes they do.”/ “No they don’t. Here, you try.”/ “I don’t want to hurt it.”/ “Just try.”/ “No.”/ “Just try. See. Isn’t it funny.”/ “A little. It’s a little funny.”/ “It’s very funny, Edith.”/ “Alright. It’s funny.”

3. When Father came home he yelled and pinched the candle out. Eva lit a new one at midnight. She crept from her bed and went downstairs. She killed with velocity the warmth that rose from the valleys of her body. She found the only caramel apple. Under the sweet crust there was a bruise. She took a full bite-- crrrrunch-- and prayed no one had heard. She looked at the furniture. At the armchair which in darkness adopted a predatory air. At the painting arranged delicately over peeling wallpaper. She looked at these things and then at herself.

Blood was running down her leg.

A whimper dribbled from her mouth.

The candle escaped her grasp.

The light, it multiplied.

Joseph Wright of Derby, At the light of a candle, three men study a small replica of the Borghese gladiator, 1765

    
By GARY WHITTAKER


One of the best paintings by the best painters in England, and I should know. Hi I'am Edme-François Gersaint, call me Gerry, your local, friendly art dealer. I'm coming to you today with this once in a life time offer, hundreds of fine paintings from some of the best artists in Europe at great prices. "Hey Gerry, how do you get all of these paintings" Well, I found the best way to get high quality art is from the source itself, that's right the painters. Ya see I've spent my life rubbing elbows and getting to know the best painters of Europe - Watteau, Fragonard and all that crew. All close personal friends. This painting in particular just screams intelligence. So buy it, guaranteed to make you look like you know something, even if you can't buckle your own shoe.

Don't believe me? Just hit anyone with this explanation and they will think you're and everyday Newton or Leibniz. The man in the front of the painting obscures the candle, making it appear that the man with the red lapel gives off the light in this painting. Light in this case represents knowledge and the discovery of new ideas. The persons in this painting study the Borghese gladiator, a statue of Roman origin perhaps attempting to gain modern insight from classical sources. The back of the statue forms a triangle with the man in front to frame the central man further reinforcing his prominence in the painting.

This painting can be yours for the low price of 1,200 Francs, a steal compared to some of the other paintings in this catalog. Buy this painting to prove you intelligence in both the sciences and the arts. But act now and get a fistfull of sea shells, too! Quick, buy it before one of your friends does you don't want to look worse than them, Right?

Editor's Note: The authors were asked to write sales copy for Edme-François Gersaint, the prominent rococo art dealer who offered a printed catalog of available works.

Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery, 1766

Joseph Wright of Derby, The Iron Forge, 1772

In 1772, in the middle of the First Industrial Revolution, Joseph Wright painted The Iron Forge, one in a series of five paintings in this particular setting. The Iron Forge was contemporary, innovative, and anything but gaudy. This industrial scene exemplifies the change in Britain, pulling the focus from the aristocracy to the working class. Despite the modernity of the painting, Wright’s style appears remnant from a different time. The Iron Forge bears striking resemblance to Caravaggio, with the strong contrasts between light and dark and the austerity of the space. The glowing piece of iron in almost the direct center illuminates the painting with a warm light, yet the effect is ominous. The iron creates a glowing circle of light, illuminating the family in the back and the two men whose fronts we cannot see – the man holding the iron and a mystery man in red with a miserable-looking child on his knee. The utilization of space reminds me of The Calling of Saint Matthew by Caravaggio.

The circle of men at the table and the circle made by the family, the worker, and the glowing iron take up similar space in the paintings. Then there are the subjects in the shadows, Jesus Christ and Saint Peter in Calling of Saint Matthew and the mystery man in The Iron Forge. Both paintings have a heightened sense of drama and urgency. In Saint Matthew, the story makes it dramatic. In Iron Forge, it is the setting that creates the sense of power and danger. For an unconventional painting, maybe Wright’s style didn’t stray too far from tradition after all.

Joseph Wright of Derby, The Dead Soldier, 1790

The soldier is the focal point, almost in the center of the painting, clad in scarlet. My eyes travel directly to his crumpled figure in brilliant red. But then, like a nightmare, I notice his hand. His hand is green. Cue the blood-curdling scream.

Perhaps even more disturbing than the hand itself is the disheveled woman clasping it, crying into it. Obviously distressed at her husband’s death, she has turned her face away from us. She is having one final private moment with her love. Her baby is the only one whose face we see. It lays in its mothers’ arms, expressionless, placid. It does not mourn its father's death. Instead, it invites us into the makeshift tent. Its hand clasps its father’s, linking the innocence of young life and the corruption of war and death. Those three cannot escape the war. It rages on behind them, fills the sky with smoke. Bursts of red direct our eyes diagonally across the painting deeper into the battle, from the wife’s dress in the bottom left corner, to the scarlet corpse, to the cannon wheel hiding in the shadows, to the flash of pink in the center-right. Red punctures the painting, makes it bleed.

I don’t want to look at this painting anymore. It makes me want to scream, to pull the baby away from its inescapable misery, to let go of the green hand. But I can’t. I have to let this scene live on in eternal turmoil and be thankful that I don’t share its fate.

Technological Effects on Society
Curated by Austin Krause

Joseph Wright, The Iron Forge, 1772

Joseph Wright of Derby was one of the first artist that I truly took time to study, and he quickly become one of my favorites. Everything about the way he painted the Enlightenment made him stand out in a more unique way. Not only did he paint about the Enlightenment like most artists of his time, but he did not always portray it in a positive way. In most of his paintings, there are two light sources: Religion and Knowledge. In between the two light sources is darkness which seems to compress the light of knowledge while allowing the light from nature/religion to flow freely through it.

When observing his painting The Iron Forge, it can be seen that the new knowledge of his time produces a glow that is beginning to overpower the second light source in the painting, the moon. The moon is what symbolizes religion, through nature. It represents the idea of God creating the earth for what it is and how it is. But without saying that that statement is false, it shows that the effect that technology and knowledge have on society is proving to be the more reasonable way of thinking as people start to realize: “Hey, that sounds like it makes more sense!”

Technological Effects on Society
Curated by Austin Krause

Joseph Wright, An Experiment with an Air Pump, 1768

Penelope Unraveling Her Web, Joseph Wright of Derby, 1783-1784

Penelope Unraveling her Web
Mother Liberty and the Seducer
Curated by Alex McDonald

Curator's Note: The Mother Liberty and Seducer story arc has come to a close. I now leave you with two thematically linked stories.

Rumors circulate of Odysseus' death at sea. His absence creates a void in his family, which Joseph Wright of Derby’s Penelope Unraveling her Web depicts. Penelope, Odysseus’ wife, has become the object of all men’s obsessions. They circle her like vultures waiting to sink teeth into a good piece of meat.

What can she do?

Her husband has been gone for years and every man she meets looks her up and down.

What can she do?

Society comes crashing down on her. A woman with a child can’t be single forever.

What can she do?

She weaves. Penelope knows Odysseus lives. No one can convince her differently. So she tells her suitors, admirers, and stalkers once she has finished a veil for her father-in-law, she will pick her new husband.

The men howl with glee. But unbeknownst to them, Penelope will never finish the veil. The unraveling of her web occurs every night while no men watch. The circling wolves are kept at bay.

So now she sits by her slumbering son, waiting for Odysseus. Penelope keeps guard over her family, like the faithful dog besides her. Odysseus’ stone form watches over his wife and son as well, trying to fill the gap left in Penelope’s heart.