Joseph Wright of Derby

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump

US$ 669.00

A travelling scientist pumps the air from a glass globe containing a cockatoo, and the family watching react in every register — fascination, indifference, distress. A single candle lights the whole scene. Wright leaves it unresolved whether the bird lives, and the picture is genuinely about what people will accept in the name of knowledge.

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Artist

Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797) painted the Industrial Revolution as it was happening, and made candlelight and furnace-glow his subject at a time when other British painters were doing portraits and pastoral scenes. He worked outside London for most of his life, close to the scientists and manufacturers of the Midlands, and treated their experiments as fit material for grand history painting.

Material Archival canvas
Frame Supplied rolled, unframed
Print Fine-art print, printed to order
Size 50 × 37 inches
Delivery 2–3 weeks
Certificate of Authenticity Included, emailed on delivery
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