One of those paintings that’s instantly recognisable, but you probably don’t know why, will be the centrepiece of a National Gallery exhibition this winter.
That’s an extract from An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump, a painting by Joseph Wright, the Derby-based painter often considered to be the first professional painter to “express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution”.
Wright is also notable for his use of tenebrism, an exaggerated style that emphasises the contrast of light and dark, and for his paintings of candle-lit subjects. And later this year, an exhibition of his candlelight series will open at the National Gallery.
The National Gallery says that traditionally, Wright of Derby has been viewed as a figurehead of the Enlightenment, a period of scientific, philosophical and artistic development in the 17th and 18th century. Challenging this conventional view, the exhibition contributes to the ongoing re-evaluation of the artist, portraying him not merely as a ‘painter of light’ but as one who deliberately explores the night-time to engage with deeper and more sombre themes, including death, melancholy, morality, scepticism and the sublime.
The exhibition also marks the first time in 35 years that several of his most famous works will be brought together, as well as works that haven’t been seen in the UK for over a decade.
In his masterpiece An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, a travelling lecturer shows a well-established experiment to a family audience whose reactions range from wonder to horror.
In The Orrery, the first of his paintings on a ‘scientific’ subject, a philosopher presents a lecture on astronomy using a clockwork model of the solar system as the centrepiece, the sun replaced by an oil lamp. In Three Persons Viewing the Gladiator by Candlelight, one artist holds up a drawing of the central sculpture for critical assessment. These works explore moral ambiguity in acts of looking, as well as the intellectual influence of ‘high’ art.
The exhibition will also include on display some of the scientific instruments of the Enlightenment, including an orrery and an air pump from the late 1700s, on loan from the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Cambridge.
The exhibition, Wright of Derby: From the Shadows will open at the National Gallery in November.
Tickets are on sale now from here.
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After it closes in London, the collection will travel to Derby Museum and Art Gallery in 2026, bringing two of Wright’s most famous works, The Air Pump and The Orrery, back to his hometown for the first time in 80 years.
