Italian Landscape

1790

Joseph Wright

Artist, British, 1734 - 1797

Mountains painted in tones of sage and mint green and mauve purple are backlit against a hazy sky in this expansive, nearly square landscape painting. In the bottom quarter of the composition, the dirt-packed land is partially covered with patches of scrubby grass. A person, tiny in the landscape, sits on a rock to the left of the bottom center of the painting. That person has pale skin and wears a wide-brimmed, dark hat, a slate-blue jacket, muted red pants, and shin-high boots. He rests his head in one hand, that elbow propped on his bent knee. He braces a stick, perhaps a walking stick, against the other shoulder, and a canteen hangs by one hip. A path starting in the lower left corner of the painting winds back into the deep distance. A complex of pale-colored buildings sits on a rocky cliff face near the center of the composition, and another complex is tucked on a distant mountain to the left. The mountains span the left two-thirds of the painting and taper down to meet a crescent-shaped body of water to the right. Another building in the deep distance near the right edge of the canvas is outlined against a smoky, pale blue ridge. White clouds pile in the hazy sky in the top half of the painting. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner, “I Wright Pinx 1790.”

Media Options

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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.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/british-paintings-16th-19th-centuries.pdf

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Paul Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 103.5 x 130.4 cm (40 3/4 x 51 5/16 in.)
    framed: 122.2 x 146.7 x 6.9 cm (48 1/8 x 57 3/4 x 2 11/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1983.1.47

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Mr. Mills, Yorkshire.[1] A.J. Bentley, by 1831;[2] by descent to John Bentley, Esq. [1797-1879], Birch House, near Bolton, Lancashire, and Portland Place, London; his estate; (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.

Associated Names

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.

  • 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.

Inscriptions

lower left: I Wright / Pinx / 1790

Wikidata ID

Q20179785

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