Title: Joseph Wright of Derby: Painter of Light
Sub-Title: Volume 1
Volume: 1
Author: Benedict Nicolson
Published Place: London
Copyright: Benedict Nicolson, 1968
Published Year: 1968
Title: The Treasure Houses of Britain
Sub-Title: Five Hundred Years of Private Patronage and Art Collecting
Author: Gervase Jackson-Stops
Published Place: New Haven
Published Year: 1985
Title: Alexander and John Robert Cozens
Sub-Title: The Poetry of Landscape
Author: Kim Sloan
Published Place: New Haven and London
Published Year: 1986

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

Rocks with Waterfall

Date: c. 1772

Medium: Oil on canvas.

Object Type:	Painting
Dimensions:	Support: 807 × 1092 mm (31 3/4 × 43 in.)
Description:	This incredible picture is thought by many to be Wright’s first landscape painting. In making it, Wright took his interest in creating textures and effects of light to a radical new level. The tell-tale marks of a palette knife reveal that he was moulding thick paint on the canvas; building up layers of texture to replicate the surface of rock. Elsewhere he used a pointed tool, such as the end of a paintbrush, to create the effect of cascading water. Interestingly, it appears that Wright’s approach to painting never again reached this same degree of technical intensity. Closer inspection reveals a group of banditti, whose presence provides an unsettling sense of scale to the scene. Beside their tiny figures, rocks appear enormous and the force of nature amplified. On loan from a private collection [June 2016]
Viewing Status:	Contact Us
Item Ref:	L2020-1