Joseph Wright, aka Wright of Derby (Joseph Wright or Wright of Derby, 09/03/1734 - 08/29/1797) - English artist, specialist in portraits and landscape painting. He became famous as "the first professional artist who managed to convey the spirit of the industrial revolution" and as a master of the image of light and shadows.
Wright was born in Irongate, Derby (Irongate, Derby). Deciding to become an artist, Joseph moved to London (London), where for two years he worked under the guidance of Thomas Hudson (Thomas Hudson), who also taught Joshua Reynolds (Joshua Reynolds).
After completing his studies, Wright returned to Derby, where he painted portraits for some time. Later, Joseph returned to Hudson's assistant, after which (in 1753) he again moved to Derby. This time, Wright did not limit himself to portraits alone - he brilliantly mastered the technique of drawing light and shadows and learned how to repeat real lighting effects with incredible accuracy.
Derby proved to be an extremely fertile ground for the artist's talents; This was largely due to the level of development of local industry. Wright was friendly with a number of founders of the British Industrial Revolution; thus, he was intimately acquainted with Josiah Wedgwood, a pioneer of the local ceramics industry, and Richard Arkwright, who brought technological advances to cotton processing. Wright was quite close to Erasmus Darwin and other members of the Lunar Society, a prominent grouping of industrialists, scientists, and philosophers.
A number of Wright's paintings, best remembered for their skilful play of light and shadow, were created under the impression of meetings of the Lunar Society. The light in Wright's paintings, however, also had a metaphorical meaning - the scientific communities at that time seriously changed the world and the human view of it, acting simultaneously as a guiding light and a light beam that reveals secrets hidden in the darkness.
Between 1768 and 1771 Wright lived in Liverpool (Liverpool); here he was mainly engaged in portraits - including portraits of the most prominent local citizens.
On July 28, 1773, Wright married Ann Swift. Ann and Joseph had six children (three of whom, however, died in infancy).
Back in 1773, Wright - in the company of John Downman (John Downman), Richard Hurleston (Richard Hurleston) and his pregnant wife - went to Italy (Italy). In February 1774, Wright and his comrades arrived in Livorno; They had a chance to visit other Italian cities. In Naples (Naples) Wright witnessed the eruption of Vesuvius (Vesuvius); This riot of nature made the strongest impression on him - in the future, Joseph repeatedly painted on this topic.
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Returning from Italy, Wright settled in Bath (Bath); for some time he was engaged in portraiture here. However, Joseph did not achieve much success; in 1777 he returned to Derby, this time for good. Until the very end of his days, Wright remained an artist of the provincial level - which, however, did not detract from the quality of his work. Now Joseph is rightfully considered one of the most unusual creators of his time; fame brought to him as a favorite technique, and interest in the industrial revolution.
On August 17, 1790, Anne Wright died; the artist himself outlived his wife by 7 years and died on August 29, 1797. Wright's body was buried in a graveyard near one of Derby's churches; later, this church was destroyed during the construction of a new road, and Wright's ashes were transferred to another cemetery.
Joseph Wright, Joseph Wright of Derby, Wright of Derby (Eng. Joseph Wright, Eng. Joseph Wright of Derby, Eng. Wright of Derby) (September 3, 1734, Derby, England - August 29, 1797, Derby, England) - one of eminent British painters of the 18th century.
The artist stands out for his mastery of lighting effects, as well as paintings, the scenes of which are lit by candles. He was influenced by caravaggism, primarily by the Dutch artists Gerrit van Honthorst and Hendrik Terbruggen.
He is considered a pioneer of the industrial theme in the visual arts. His paintings of the emergence of science from alchemy were often based on topics discussed at meetings of the Lunar Society, a group of influential scientists and industrialists who lived in the Midlands, and reflect the struggle of science against religious worldview during the Enlightenment.
Many of Wright's paintings and drawings are the property of Derby City Council and are on display at the Derby City Museum and Art Gallery.
Joseph Wright's success as a portrait painter brought him a steady income. However, first of all, he is known for his scientific and industrial works, full of drama, which distinguished him from other contemporaries, putting him on a par with other great British artists.
For the first time, the heroes of large compositions were workers and scientists, and not ancient and biblical characters or genre-allegorical figures. The residence of the artist in Derby just contributed to this, since it was here that the Industrial Revolution manifested itself through the forges, glass and clay shops and local factories. The spirit of these places is reflected in many of the artist's works, for example, in "Lectures on the solar system" (c. 1763-1765, Derby Art Gallery); "An Experiment with an Air Pump" (1768, Tate Britain, London); "Forge" (1773, Hermitage, St. Petersburg), "Alchemist discovering phosphorus" (1771-1795, Art Gallery, Derby)
Wright Joseph(1734–1797) is one of the most prominent British painters of the 18th century.
Joseph Wright was born on September 3, 1734 in the English town of Derby in the family of a lawyer - John Wright (1697-1767), who later became a city official, and his wife Hannah Brooks (1700-1764). Joseph was the third of five children. Joseph Wright was educated at Derby Grammar School and taught himself to draw by copying prints.
Deciding to become an artist, Joseph Wright went to London in 1751. For three years (1751-1753 and 1756-1757), the future painter studied at the London Studio with the famous portrait painter Thomas Hudson (1701-1779), who also studied with Joshua Reynolds. Until 1760, early portraits were painted by Wright in the manner of his teacher. This is primarily "Portrait of Miss Ketton", St. Louis, Missouri, City. art gallery, and "Portrait of Thomas Bennett", Derby Museum.
In the early period of his work - from 1760 to 1773, Joseph Wright lived in Derby. Here he met ceramics master Josiah Wedgwood, the founder of the Wedgwood company, and chemist Joseph Priestley. The artist repeatedly attended the experiments of scientists and depicted them in his works. In particular, during this period he painted his famous paintings "Planetarium" (1766, Derby, Museum; option - New Haven, Yale Center for British Art) and "Pump Test" (1768, London, Tate Rogers-Coltman Gallery ), reflecting the interest of the inhabitants of Middle England in scientific research. The great Denis Diderot noted these works by Joseph Wright, calling them "a serious genre."
Joseph Wright made his first attempts to practice as an artist in Liverpool, starting to regularly exhibit his paintings at the Royal Society of Arts in London. Between 1773 and 1775, Joseph Wright worked in Italy, where he painted ancient ruins, studied landscape drawing, copied classical statues, and watched spectacular fireworks during the carnival in Rome. In Naples, Joseph Wright witnessed the grandiose eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which inspired him to write several dozen paintings depicting the dramatic effect of the struggle between fire and darkness. Subsequently, this theme was very often reflected in his works.
On the coast of the Gulf of Naples, the artist explored picturesque caves and grottoes. He expressed his impressions of Italian nature with the words: "a beautiful and unusual atmosphere, so pure and understandable", which was subsequently reflected in his works.
For two years from 1775 to 1777, the artist worked in Bath, where he tried in vain to attract the clientele of Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), an outstanding English painter, graphic artist, portrait painter and landscape painter, however, having failed, he returned to Derby.
Starting in 1778, Wright painted his best portraits: "Portrait of Sir Brooke Boothby", 1781, London, Tate Gallery; "Portrait of Yus Kok with his wife and Daniel Parker Kok", 1780-1782, Derby, City Museum; "Portrait of Thomas Gisborne with his wife", 1786, New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, and a portrait of Samuel Ward from the collection of the Derby Museum.
Since that time, Wright's works began to be exhibited at the Royal Academy, of which he was soon elected a member (associate since 1781, and in 1784 full).
Joseph Wright's success as a portrait painter brought him a stable income, but first of all, the artist is known to the general public for his scientific and industrial works, full of drama, which distinguished him from other contemporaries, putting him on a par with other great British artists.
For the first time, the heroes of the artist's large compositions were workers and scientists, and not antique and biblical characters or genre-allegorical figures.
The artist is considered a pioneer of the industrial theme in the visual arts. His paintings of the emergence of science from alchemy were often based on topics discussed at meetings of the Lunar Society, a group of influential scientists and industrialists who lived in the Midlands, and reflect the struggle of science against religious worldview during the Enlightenment.
Until the end of his life, Joseph Wright remained a provincial artist, however, thanks to his original manner, combining elements of Gothic and neoclassicism, his interest in scientific research and modern literature, he became one of the forerunners of romantic art.
In the last years of his life, Joseph Wright was often ill and treated by his friend Erasmus Darwin.
Joseph Wright died in Derby on August 29, 1797, with his family in his native Derby, and was buried at the foundation of St. Alkmund's Church.
In 1968 the church was demolished to make way for a major new section of the inner ring road through the city center and is currently under the road. Wright's remains were removed to Nottingham Road Cemetery.
Wright's creative legacy is collected mainly at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, the Tate Gallery in London and the Derby Museum, including a significant collection of drawings and watercolors.
According to materials: Wikipedia, Encyclopedia of World Art - Vilnius, UAB "Bestiary", 2008, Great Illustrated Encyclopedia "Masters of World Painting" St. Petersburg, LLC "SZKEO", 2011, Information Portal Art Planet Small Bay - Museum of Art and History, Great Illustrated Encyclopedia of Painting (edited by E.V. Ivanova, N.Yu. Nikolaev) ”OLMA Media Group”, Moscow 2011, World Art (500 masters of painting), LLC “SZKEO “Crystal””, 2006,
Nicolson B. Joseph Wright of Derby: painter of light, v. 1-2, , 1968., Great Soviet encyclopedia in 30 volumes. Third edition 1969, CHM.
In accordance with Article 1282 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the works of this author have passed into the public domain
Joseph Wright, Joseph Wright of Derby, Wright of Derby(Eng. Joseph Wright, Eng. Joseph Wright of Derby, Eng. Wright of Derby) (September 3, 1734, Derby, England - August 29, 1797, Derby, England) - one of the prominent British painters of the XVIII century.
The artist stands out for his mastery of lighting effects, as well as paintings, the scenes of which are lit by candles. He was influenced by caravaggism, primarily by the Dutch artists Gerrit van Honthorst and Hendrik Terbruggen.
He is considered a pioneer of the industrial theme in the visual arts. His paintings of the emergence of science from alchemy were often based on topics discussed at meetings of the Lunar Society, a group of influential scientists and industrialists who lived in the Midlands, and reflect the struggle of science against religious worldview during the Enlightenment.
Many of Wright's paintings and drawings are the property of Derby City Council and are on display at the Derby City Museum and Art Gallery.
Biography
Joseph Wright was born on September 3, 1734 in Derby to a lawyer - John Wright (1697-1767), who later became a city official, and his wife Hannah Brooks (1700-1764). Joseph was the third of five children. Wright was educated at Derby Grammar School and taught himself to draw by copying prints.
Deciding to become an artist, Wright went to London in 1751. For three years (1751-1753 and 1756-1757), the future painter studied at the London Studio with the famous portrait painter Thomas Hudson, who also studied with Joshua Reynolds. Prior to 1760, early portraits were painted by Wright in the manner of his teacher (Portrait of Miss Ketton, St. Louis, Missouri, Gor. Art Gallery; Portrait of Thomas Bennett, Derby Museum).
Use the cursor to determine who is who
In the early period of creative search - from 1760 to 1773 - the artist lived in Derby. Here he met ceramist Josiah Wedgwood, founder of the Wedgwood Company, and chemist Joseph Priestley. He was present at the experiments of scientists and depicted them in his works. In particular, during this period he painted the paintings "Planetarium" (1766, Derby, Museum; option - New Haven, Yale Center for British Art) and "Pump Test" (1768, London, Tate Rogers-Coltman Gallery), reflecting the interest inhabitants of Middle England to scientific research. Denis Diderot noted these works by Wright, calling them "a serious genre".
Wright made his first attempt at an internship as a painter in Liverpool, regularly exhibiting his paintings (eg Miravan) at the Royal Society of Arts in London. However, his native and beloved Derby forever remained the main place where the artist lived and worked.
Between 1773 and 1775, Joseph was in Italy, where he painted ancient ruins (for example, the tomb of Virgil), studied landscape drawing (The Burrowing Man), copied classical statues, and watched spectacular fireworks during the carnival in Rome.
In Naples, Joseph Wright witnessed the grandiose eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which inspired him to write dozens of paintings depicting the dramatic effect of the struggle between fire and darkness. Subsequently, this theme was very often reflected in his works.
Eruption of Vesuvius (1774)
House on fire at night (c. 1785 - 1793)
Vesuvius at Posillipo (c. 1788)
Cave, near Naples (1774)
Grotto in the Gulf of Salerno, sunset (c. 1780 - 1781)
On the coast of the Gulf of Naples, the artist explored picturesque caves and grottoes. He expressed his impressions of Italian nature with the words: "a beautiful and unusual atmosphere, so pure and understandable", which was subsequently reflected in his works.
For two years (1775-1777) the artist worked in Bath, where he tried in vain to attract the clientele of Thomas Gainsborough. Having failed, he returned to Derby.
Starting in 1778, some of his best portraits were painted (“Portrait of Sir Brooke Boothby”, 1781, London, Gal. Tate; “Portrait of Eus Cock with his wife and Daniel Parker Cock”, 1780-1782, Derby Museum; “Portrait of Thomas Gisborne with his wife, 1786, New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, and a portrait of Samuel Ward from the collection of the Derby Museum). Since that time, Wright's works have been exhibited at the Royal Academy, of which he soon becomes a member (associate from 1781, and in 1784 full). Wright, however, wrote portraits earlier (for example, Thomas and Anna Borrow).
Wright called himself "the world's greatest architect" and was a terrific promoter of his own ideas. This is confirmed by the exhibition for his 150th anniversary at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Frank Lloyd Wright. East view of the Temple of Concord in Oak Park. 1905-1908. Watercolor. Photo: MoMA
On October 16, 1956, Frank Lloyd Wright held a press conference at Chicago's 1,700-room Sherman Hotel. America's most famous architect needed a truly large venue to present his "Illinois" - a project of more than one and a half kilometers in height, 528-story skyscraper with 56 elevators, powered by nuclear power, designed for 130 thousand residents, equipped with a garage for 15 thousand cars and a double platform for 100 helicopters.
Skyscraper the size of a city
Knowing how to seduce journalists, Wright enlarged the almost three-meter drawing of the tower, which was very impressive in itself, to 6.7 m with the help of photographic equipment. He thought not only on a large scale, but also radically. It may seem strange, but the Illinois project was inextricably linked to Wright's conviction that the modern city is a monstrous, sprawling creature that must be curbed. Ideally, a city the size of Chicago could be contained in a few tall skyscrapers surrounded by lush vegetation instead of streets. Nature, with a capital P, was almost a cult for Wright. "Illinois" was conceived as a means to protect nature by compacting and limiting the modern city.
Frank Lloyd Wright. Gordon Strong Planetarium Project in Maryland. 1924-1925. Colored pencil on tracing paper. Photo: MoMA
The press took this project with great enthusiasm: the 88-year-old architect provided journalists with interesting material, which, however, had constantly happened in the previous 70 years. Scandalous, direct, witty and completely absorbed in his work, Wright thought big and acted decisively. His life was full of drama and real tragedies. Two burned houses. Mistress and her two children, hacked to death with an axe. Noisy divorces. And of course, a lot of magnificent innovative buildings and projects developed from the very foundation of the workshop under his name in 1893. Frank Lloyd Wright was a very versatile person.
Perhaps it is not surprising that the Wright archive is so rich and multifaceted. In 2012, it was moved from the architect's former workshops in Taliesin East, Wisconsin and Taliesin West, Arizona to Columbia University and New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). And the curators began to study approximately 55 thousand sketches, 300 thousand pages of correspondence, 285 films and 2.7 thousand manuscripts.
Unpacked archive
In honor of Wright's 150th birthday, MoMA is hosting an exhibition, Unpacking the Archive, featuring some 450 works by the architect. The museum has released a voluminous catalog, the authors of which have made an attempt to interpret all this architectural richness. And it definitely needs interpretation, because over the 72 years of Wright's activity, the style of his sketches and drawings has developed and experienced different periods, as happens with long-lived artists. All these periods are united by a very interesting, often brilliant technique, consistently revealing the influence of the Arts and Crafts Movement, Japanese printmaking, the Vienna Secession, Art Deco, European modernism, automotive design (he had 85 cars in total) and even Hollywood.
Wright would have made an excellent production designer and decorator. His own life was partly the basis of Ayn Rand's best-selling novel The Fountainhead (1943), which was made into a 1949 US melodrama starring Gary Cooper. Although the hero's worldview and ideals can be equally attributed to Le Corbusier, the flamboyant Wisconsin architect was an undisputed star. And Wright knew it. When once in court he was asked about his profession, he replied: "I am the greatest architect in the world." His third wife, Montenegrin ballerina Olgivanna Lazovic, was outraged by such bravado, to which he replied: “I had no choice, Olgivanna. I was under oath."
Unknown photographer. Frank Lloyd Wright. Photo: MoMA
talent recruiter
In the late 1950s, when the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum was growing on Fifth Avenue, the architect appeared on television several times. Especially striking was his live interview in September 1957 on the Mike Wallace Interview, where he spoke about religion, war, euthanasia, art, criticism, American youth, sex, morality, politics, nature, death, and his one and a half kilometer skyscraper.
Driven by global ideas and a desire to reach a wide audience, Wright mastered a variety of presentation techniques, from drawing with colored pencils to books, magazines, exhibitions, monographs, films, radio, and television. He even took part in the popular game show What's My Line? In addition, he attracted gifted young assistants who were good at drawing. Many of Wright's exemplary sketches were created by his assistants, most notably Jack Howe, known as "Frank Lloyd Wright's pencil-in-hand". Starting at the workshop in 1932 at age 19, he became chief draftsman in 1937, during the construction of the Falls House, one of America's most famous buildings.
Unknown photographer. Frank Lloyd Wright at work. Photo: MoMA
Wright's assistant, hired by him in 1895, was named Marion Mahoney, and she was one of the first women to graduate in architecture. Mahoney's contribution to Wright's work is significant, producing drawings and watercolors of the highest quality. In 1910, the Berlin publisher Ernst Wasmuth produced a two-volume set of lithographs of plans and perspectives for Wright's buildings. The author of more than half of these images, made in a single "corporate" style, was Mahoney. Not only did she set the tone and style for sketch portfolios, but, in an instant and under the name of Wright, she captured the minds and pencils of the leading representatives of the first generation of European modernist architects.
A copy of the book Erected Buildings and Projects by Frank Lloyd Wright was also delivered to the Berlin workshop of Peter Behrens. They say that the work in it froze for several days, while the architect's students carefully examined the drawings. The pupils were named Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius. Other copies fell into the hands of the young Austrian architects Rudolf Schindler and Richard Neutra. Both of them subsequently emigrated to the United States and worked for Wright, and later contributed to the formation of modernist architecture in California. At the end of World War I, drawings for Wright's "American prefab" projects were being done by Schindler and the young Czech architect Antonin Raimond, who after World War II became one of the fathers of modernist architecture in Japan.
Frank Lloyd Wright. Site plan and home of Darwin Martin in Buffalo. 1903-1906. Ink drawing. Photo: MoMA
Wright himself was closely associated with Japan (he collected Japanese printed graphics all his life). The exhibition features a rare selection of photographs of his Imperial Hotel (1913-1923) in Tokyo, a complex building that was damaged in a major earthquake in 1923 and demolished in 1968. Designed, in Wright's words, as "a system of gardens, hanging gardens, subterranean gardens, balcony gardens, loggia gardens, and roof gardens," this building served as a link between his early and middle periods as an artist-architect and between western and eastern designs.
Wright spent a lot of time in Tokyo, and it was there that he began to paint on Japanese rice and carbon paper, which he continued to commission for his workshop in Taliesin when he returned to the US. In the 1920s, his assistants included the Japanese architects Kameki and Nobuko Tsuchiura, who also worked on the Imperial Hotel. Nobuko was the first Japanese female architect.
Among Wright's later assistants at Taliesin West (it was a half-architecture, half-back-to-the-earth pastoral farm) was Elizabeth (Betty) Bauer, head of architecture and design at MoMA during World War II. “Betty is in the trenches in blue uniforms,” Wright wrote to a friend, “and everyone is sweating like boys.”
Frank Lloyd Wright. Waterfall House Project (Kaufman House) in Pennsylvania. 1934-1937. Color pencil. Photo: MoMA
romantic ruralism
The exhibit highlights Wright's love of nature and his belief that the best life is outside the city. In 1932, taking advantage of Roosevelt's New Deal, Wright, along with engineer, accountant, and US food management consultant Walter Davidson, developed plans for "small farm units" - small farms up to one and a half hectares in size, combining farms and roadside markets. Just imagine such a - Wright - way of life instead of the suburban sleeping areas of the 21st century, which have nothing to do with nature or with the land on which they stand!
The "small farm unit" model was never put into practice, but their layouts capture the very essence of Wright's romantic ruralism. His enduring love of nature and individualism can be traced back to the writings of 19th-century authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. All three celebrated the self-sufficient, independent, and individualistic lifestyle of rural America. Wright read Whitman's poems from Leaves of Grass (1855) to his students at Taliesin West. And he lived in accordance with the principle formulated at the end of Thoreau's Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854): "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, is it perhaps because he hears a different rhythm? Let him walk to the music that he hears, whatever its rhythm and however far it may sound.
Frank Lloyd Wright. One of the "American prefabricated houses". Project. 1915-1917. Lithography. Photo: MoMA
Wright was a prolific and unique artist, but he was not alone. This is evidenced by the layout and sketches of Broadacre City (“Wide City”), which, according to the Wright equation, is the sum of architecture and area. Work on the low-density garden city project had been in progress since the early 1930s. It was a kind of response to New York and Chicago, created by a group of young architects. Even if you're not an anti-urbanist, you have to admit that this unrealized suburban utopia is just as impressive today as it was in April 1935 when it was unveiled at Rockefeller Center in New York. Broadacre City morphed into the Living City project of 1958, complete with futuristic flying machines to attract new audiences. It was a twin object to Wright's one and a half kilometer skyscraper. He may have wanted Americans to live the rural life, but he knew how to impress urban audiences with mesmerizing projects using all available means.
The Unpacking the Archives exhibition shows that Wright was not only an original architect who knew how to find talented assistants, but also an amazing propagandist. None of the architects was devoted to so many exhibitions. His work was included in MoMA's first ever architectural project, the International Exhibition of Modern Architecture, in 1932, and now, 85 years later, Frank Lloyd Wright is still as lively and interesting as when he presented his incredible skyscraper in downtown Chicago.
New York, Museum of Modern Art
Frank Lloyd Wright - 150. Unpacking the archive
Until October 1
