Well, if the light’s the thing, how did Wright do it? How did he use light to make engaging works? I’ve been thinking about how to do this and I believe a comparison of two of Wrights paintings, one with basic lighting and one with lighting typical of his “genre” paintings would be instructive. And I think it would be particulary helpful if the two paintings showed similar subject matter. I’ve chosen two of Wright’s cottage paintings, one in daylight and the other at night on fire*:
Image on the left: A Cottage in Needlewood Forest. 1790. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 in . Derby Museum and Art Gallery. Image copyright the Derby Museum.
Image on the right: Cottage on Fire. 1793. Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in. Derby Museum and Art Gallery. Image copyright the Derby Museum.
There are a few basic differences compositionally: the main subject in the daylight painting is located in one of the intersections created by dividing the canvas into thirds, while the cottage on fire is more precariously placed at the far edge of the canvas; the cottage in the daylight painting, protected by the hills and woods on either side, is open to the sky above, while the cottage on fire is hemmed in by woods on one side and an imposing castle and hill on the other. But the main difference is in the light.
The daylight cottage is bathed in the warm, natural light of the sun. The other cottage sits in darkness, the only natural source of light, the moon, is obscured by trees and the main light source comes from the cottage itself as it burns and is consumed by fire. In this painting the light isn’t a source of comfort but of drama. In both paintings, however the true source of light is obscured: we cannot see the rising sun in the daylight cottage painting, and although we can see the flames, the front of the night cottage is in silhoutte and we see the rim of flames and the back of the cottage prevents us from seeing the actual fire. The light from the fire, instead of illuminating the landscape, casts deep shadows, further obscuring our vision and increasing the sense of drama in the scene.
Maybe I’ve gone about this the wrong way… the pieces I’m most drawn to in Wright’s work are the interior pieces with an artificial light source: candle- or lamplight… Perhaps I need to look at this again with other examples of his work?
Notes:
* In November 2007 at the Wright of Derby Symposium organised by the University of Liverpool and the Walker Art Gallery, Stephen Daniels, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Nottingham, delivered a presentation titled, “Cottages on Fire” in which he explored Wright’s series of burning cottage paintings and used one other cottage painting for comparison. I’m not sure if Daniels compared these exact paintings, but based on my reading of the abstract of his presentation: http://www.uolevents.org/programmedocs/WrightofDerby_Programme_Speakers.doc he was exploring the image in context of war and illustration of wartime atrocities and panic. Not Wright’s use of light, so I believe I’m safe here taking the same tact to illustrate what I think.
