Yale Center for British Art

Creator:
Joseph Wright of Derby, 1734–1797, British, active in Italy (1773–75)
Title:
The Blacksmith's Shop
Date:
1771
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
50 1/2 x 41 inches (128.3 x 104.1 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Signed and dated, lower right: "Jo:[symbol] Wright | Pinx [symbol] 1771."
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.712
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
clouds | apprentices | blacksmiths | moon | labor | angels | moonlight | genre subject | anvil (tool) | ruins | machines | tools | horseshoes (animal equipment) | metal | religious (people) | woman | contrast | night | light | boys | children | workers | monastery | shop | church
Currently On View:
On view at the Yale University Art Gallery
Exhibition History:
Crafting Worldviews: European Instruments of Art and Science from Yale University (Yale University Art Gallery, 2023-02-17 - 2023-06-25)

Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool (Walker Art Gallery, 2007-11-17 - 2008-02-24)

Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-05-22 - 2008-08-30)

Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-09-27 - 2001-12-30)

Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney (The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 2002-02-01 - 2002-05-05)

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05)

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06)

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15)

Joseph Wright of Derby (Musée du Louvre, 1990-05-17 - 1990-07-23)

Joseph Wright of Derby (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1990-09-06 - 1990-12-02)

Joseph Wright of Derby (Tate Britain, 1990-02-07 - 1990-04-22)
Publications:
David Alexander, Painters and Engraving: The Reproductive Print from Hogarth to Wilkie, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1980, p. 31, no. 51, NE631.2 .A43 (YCBA)

Elizabeth E. Barker, Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool, Yale University Press, Liverpool New Haven, 2007, pp. 49, 52, 66-7, 88, 167-8, no.41, fig. 77, NJ18 W95 B36 2007 + (YCBA)

Timothy J. Barringer, The Englishness of Thomas Cole, University of New Hampshire Press, Durham, NH, 2011, p. 14, V2383 (YCBA)

Annalisa Bellerio, Joseph Wright of Derby 1734-1797, FMR, No. 87, September 1997, pp. 8-9., N1 F16 OVERSIZE (HAAS)

David Bindman, The History of British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2008, pp.182-183 (vol. 2), ffig. 116, N6761 +H57 2008 Oversize (YCBA)

E. P. Birk, English Painter of Light: Exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., Magazine Antiques, vol. 97, February 1970, p. 164, NK1125 A3 OVERSIZE (HAAS)

Albert Boime, Art in an age of revolution, 1750-1800, v. 1, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1987, pp. 247-9, fig. 3.18, N6425 N4 B65 1987 (YCBA)

British Art at Yale, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, pp. 288, 291, fig. 7, N1 .A54 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Joseph Burke, The Iconography of the Enlightenment in English Art, Sydney University Press for the Australian Academy of the Humanities, 1970, pp. 15-16, pl. 6, N6766 B87

Bruce W. Chambers, The Pythagorean Puzzle of Patrick Lyon, Art Bulletin, v. 58, June 1976, pp. 231-32, fig. 13, N11 C4 + (YCBA)

Malcolm Cormack, A Selective Promenade, Apollo, vol.105, April 1977, pp. 288, 291, fig. 7, N1 A54 + (YCBA)

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 262-263, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)

Denis E. Cosgrove, The Iconography of landscape, essays on the symbolic representation, design, and use of past environments , 9, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge [England] New York, 1988, pp. 129-34, fig. 7, NX650.L34 I26 1988 (YCBA)

Matthew Craske, Joseph Wright of Derby : Painter of darkness, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, New Haven, 2020, pp. 184-185, fig. 121, NJ18.W95 C72 2020+ (YCBA)

Frederick J. Cummings, Joseph Wright at the National Gallery, Art Quarterly, vol. 34, Winter 1971, pp. 457-82, J10 Ar81 + (LSF)

Stephen Daniels, Joseph Wright, Tate Publishing, London, 1999, pp. 49-50, NJ18 W95 D25 1999 (YCBA)

Judy Egerton, Joseph Wright of Derby, 1734-1797, Londres, Tate Gallery, 7 fâevrier-22 avril 1990 ; Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, 17 mai-23 juillet 1990 ; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 6 septembre-2 dâecembre 1990 , Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, 1990, no. 35, NJ18 W95 +E5414 1990 Oversize (YCBA)

Judy Egerton, Wright of Derby, Tate Publishing, London, 1990, pp. 99-100, no. 47, NJ18 W95 +E54 1990 Oversize (YCBA)

Exhibition at Washington, Apollo, March 1970, p. 244, fig. 5, N1 A54 + (YCBA)

Celina Fox, The arts of industry in the Age of Enlightenment, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2009, p. 428, fig. 214, N72.T4 F69 2009 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Catherine M. Gordon, British paintings Hogarth to Turner, Frederick Warne, London, 1981, p. 78, ND466 .G67 (YCBA)

Loyd Grossman, Benjamin West and the struggle to be modern, Merrell, London: New York, 2015, pp. 108.111, 112, fig. 52, NJ18.W52 G76 2015 (YCBA)

Matthew Hargraves, Joseph Wright of Derby and the Society of Artists of Great Britain, British Art Journal, Vol. 11, no. 1, 2010 (Spring), pp. 56-57, Pl. 3, N6761 B74 OVERSIZE (YCBA) Also available on line (ORBIS)

E. D. H. Johnson, Paintings of the British social scene, from Hogarth to Sickert , Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1986, p. 128, no. 87, ND1452 G7 J64 (YCBA)

Joseph Wright of Derby : a selection of paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. [Exhibition] November 22, 1969 to May 1, 1970, , National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1969, no. 3, NJ18 W95 U5 (YCBA)

Joseph Wright of Derby An Academy by Lamplight, Sotheby's, London, p. 16, fig. 8, V 2763 (YCBA)

Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool, May 22 - August 31, 2008. , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2008, p. 10, V 2193 (YCBA)

Joseph Wright of Derby, 1734-1797, an exhibition of paintings and drawings, the Tate Gallery, 11 April to 18 May, the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 31 May to 21 June , Arts Council of Great Britain, London, 1958, no. 8, NJ18 W95 A77 (YCBA)

Jane Kristof, Blacksmiths, Weavers, and Artists: Images of Labor in the 19th Century, Nineteenth Century Contexts, vol. 17, 1993, p. 183, fig. 6, Yale Internet Resource

Stephen Leach, Joseph Wright and the final farewell, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2023, p. 71, fig. 5.4, NJ18 W95 L43 2023 (YCBA)

Julia Marciari-Alexander, This other Eden : Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, p. 80, no. 27, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA)

Roy Morris, Engravings After Joseph Wright, A.R.A., Print-Collector's Quarterly, vol. 19, April 1932, pp. 94-115, Je10 P933 (LSF)

Benedict Nicolson, Joseph Wright of Derby : Painter of Light, Paul Mellon Foundation for British Art, London, New York, 1968, pp. 17, 50-1..., no. 199, fig. 33, 58-9, NJ18 W95 +N53 Oversize (YCBA)

Benedict Nicolson, Joseph Wright's Early Subject Pictures, Burlington Magazine, vol. 96, no. 612, March 1954, pp. 72-80, fig. 5, N1 B87 OVERSIZE (YCBA) Available online in JStor.

Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 3, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Ronald Paulson, Breaking and remaking, aesthetic practice in England, 1700-1820 , Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 1989, pp. 203-4, fig. 21, BH221 G72 P38 1989 (YCBA)

Ronald Paulson, Emblem and expression, meaning in English art of the eighteenth century , Thames and Hudson, London, 1975, pp. 190-3, pl. 124, NX543 P38 (YCBA)

Ronald Paulson, Hogarth's harlot, sacred parody in Enlightenment England , Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Md., 2003, pp. 146, 160-2, fig. 40, BR758 P38 2003 (YCBA)

Gillian Perry, Unit 29, Joseph Wright of Derby , Open University Press, Milton Keynes (England), 1987, p. 32, NJ18 W95 P47 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Eric Robinson, Shorter Notices, Joseph Wright of Derby : The Philosophers' Painter , Burlington Magazine, vol. 100, The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd., June 1958, p. 214, N1 B87 100 OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Michael Rosenthal, The art of Thomas Gainsborough, "a little business for the eye" , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1999, pp. 82-83, 219, pl. 79, NJ18 G16 R67 1999 (YCBA)

Susan L. Siegfried, Engaging the Audience, Sexual Economies of Vision in Joseph Wright , Representations, No. 68, Autumn 1999, pp. 35-38, fig. 1, Available online

Susan L. Siegfried, Engaging the Audience, Sexual Economies of Vision in Joseph Wright , Representations, No. 68, Autumn 1999, pp. 35-38, fig. 1, NX1 R46 (YCBA) also available online

Society of Artists of Great Britain, A catalogue of the pictures, sculptures, models, designs in architecture, drawings, prints, etc. : exhibited at the great room in Spring Gardens, Charing Cross, April the twenty-sixth, 1771 / by the Royal Incorporated Society of Artists of Great Britain,, London, UK, 1771, p, 16, no. 201, N5055 S6 C3 1760A (YCBA) Also Available online (Eighteenth Century Collections Online)

David H. Solkin, Joseph Wright of Derby and the Sublime Art of Labor, Representations, vol. 83, Summer 2003, pp. 167-194 n.44, fig. 1, NX1 R46 (SML)

David H. Solkin, Joseph Wright of Derby and the Sublime Art of Labor, Representations, vol. 83, Summer 2003, pp. 167-194 n.44, fig. 1, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/rep.2003.83.1.167

Peter Wagner, The ruin and the sketch in the eighteenth century, vol. 2, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, Trier, 2008, pp. 185-87, fig 6, N6766 .R75 2008 (YCBA)

Marian Wardle, The Weir family, 1820-1920, expanding the traditions of American art , Brigham Young University Museum of Art, Provo, Utah and Hanover, N.H., 2011, p. 123, NJ18 W4268 A12 2012 (LC) Oversize (HAAS)

Malcolm Warner, Great British paintings from American collections : Holbein to Hockney, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2001, p. 115, no. 27, ND464 W27 2001 (YCBA)

Ellis Waterhouse, Dictionary of British 18th Century Painters in Oils and Crayons, Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1981, p. 427, ND466 +.W38 Oversize (YCBA)

Yale Center for British Art, Selected paintings, drawings & books, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1977, p. 33, N590.2 A82 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Joseph Wright of Derby made his name in the mid-1760s by exhibiting striking pictures in London, usually modern subjects lit by artificial light. By the time he exhibited this painting in 1771, he was described by a critic as “a very great and uncommon genius.” This, the first of several versions of a blacksmith’s shop at night, alludes to old master paintings in its use of light and in the introduction of ecclesiastical ruins for a setting. However, the subject is completely contemporary, even mundane: a pair of blacksmiths forge a horseshoe so that a group of travelers can continue on their journey. It was purchased from Wright’s studio by Peniston Lamb, first Viscount Melborne (1745–1828), who also owned the Academy by Lamplight (shown nearby). Lord Melbourne paid Wright the considerable sum of 150 guineas for this picture, the same price Sir Joshua Reynolds was then charging for a full-length portrait. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:5042