Drawing of a female figure, seated, identified as a study after the sculpture known as 'Nymph with a Shell'. The figure is viewed from the side and faces left. She is seated on a low plinth and handles a sea shell. She is dressed in a simple garment, which is tied at the waist and falls from her left shoulder. Her hair is braided around her head and knotted behind. Inscribed to the lower left of the sheet (handwritten in pencil) is Derby Museums' accession number. The sheet is creased across its centre and repairs to an historic tear along the fold line are visible. The item's Derby Museums accession number is handwritten in pencil in the lower left corner of the sheet. Made by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734 - 1797), c. 1769. Pencil on brown laid paper. Displayed in a cream window mount.

Exhibitions:

Title: Joseph Wright of Derby: An Exhibition to Commemorate the Centenary of Derby Museums and Art Gallery
Venue: Derby Museum and Art Gallery
Dates: from 21/04/1979 to 21/07/1979
Title: Joseph Wright of Derby, 1734-1797: Bicentenary Exhibition
Venue: Derby Museum and Art Gallery
Dates: from 21/06/1997 to 28/09/1997

Publications

Title: Joseph Wright of Derby 1734 - 1797
Sub-Title: An introduction to the work of Joseph Wright of Derby with a catalogue of drawings held by Derby Museum and Art Gallery. Published on the occasion of an exhibition commemorating the Bicentenary of the artist's death.
Published Place: Derby
Published Year: 1997

Related People

Joseph Wright of Derby (Artist)
Display Date: British, 1734 - 1797
Nationality: British
Biography: Artist.

Verso: Study of 'Nymph with a Shell', after the Antique

Date: c. 1768-1769

Medium: Pencil on brown laid paper.

Object Type:	Drawing
Dimensions:	Support: 540 × 397 mm (21 1/4 × 15 5/8 in.)
Description:	The original sculpture known as 'Nymph with a Shell', was located at the Villa Borghese in Rome, and is now at the Louvre in Paris. This study however, and the associated study on the verso, is likely to have been based on a cast of this sculpture and made in England (at the St Martin's Lane Academy?) prior to Wright's departure for Italy in 1773. The 'Nymph with a Shell' features in two paintings, both titled 'An Academy by Lamplight'. One of these, completed in about 1769, is now in a private collection in the UK. Another, beleived by Elizabeth Barker to be the second of the two, and completed about 1769 - 70, is the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, in New Haven (this one is reproduced in BN, cat. 189, plate 60). This study is therefore likely to have been produced preparatory to these paintings. Indeed, it does not have the appearance of the studies Wright made after antique sculptures whilst in Italy. Elizabeth Barker (2008, Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool) notes the 'hesitant draughtsmanship' of the drawing and suggests that it may have been produced much earlier than the paintings in which he eventually included the Nymph's figure. Barker also offers the possibility of the drawing having been made by Wright's pupil, William Tate. She notes that Tate exhibited a black chalk drawing of 'Venus with a Shell' in Liverpool in 1774. [LB: 2024]
Inscriptions:	Inscribed to lower left (handwritten in pencil): 'DBYMU 1914-517/35B'.
Provenance:	...; William Bemrose of Derby; by descent to his son, Charles Lloyd Bemrose, by whom donated to Derby Museums in 1914.
Viewing Status:	Contact Us
Item Ref:	1914-517/35B