RCEWA – Two Boys with a Bladder by Joseph Wright of

Statement of the Expert Adviser to the Secretary of State that the painting meets Waverley criteria two and three.

Further Information

The ‘Applicant’s statement’ and the ‘Note of Case History’ are available on the Arts Council Website: www.artscouncil.org.uk/reviewing-committee-case-hearings

Please note that images and appendices referenced are not reproduced.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. Brief Description of item(s)

• What is it? A painting by representing two boys in fancy dress and illuminated by candlelight, one of the boys is blowing a bladder as the other watches.

• What is it made of? Oil paint on canvas

• What are its measurements? 927 x 730 mm

• Who is the artist/maker and what are their dates? Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797)

• What date is the item? Probably 1768-70

• What condition is it in? Based upon a viewing of the work by the advisors and conservators, the face and costumes of the two boys are in good condition. However, dark paint throughout the background exhibits widespread retouched drying cracking and there are additional areas of clumsy reconstruction indicating underlying paint losses.

2. Context

• Provenance In private ownership by the 1890s; thence by descent

The early ownership of the picture, prior to the 1890s, is speculative and requires further investigation. The applicant has suggested one possible line of provenance, as detailed below.

It has been mooted that this may be the painting referred to under a list of sold candlelight pictures in Wright’s account book as ‘Boys with a Bladder and its Companion to Ld. Exeter’ for £105. The possibility that it is the pair to Two Girls Dressing a Kitten by Candlelight (c.1768- 70, Kenwood House) has also led to its identification with lot 82 ‘a boy blowing a bladder by candle light’ sold by Christie’s on the 23rd January 1772 to Ld. Warwick for £8.8s – the same sale in which the Two Girls was sold to Lord Palmerston for £7.7s (lot 82, 24th January).

Prior to the recent discovery of this painting, Elizabeth Barker had proposed that the Huntington’s painting, Two Boys Blowing a Bladder by Candlelight c.1770, may be the pair to the Two Girls, advancing the same ownership history as detailed above.

However, though possible, there are queries around such a provenance:

The Lord Exeter listed in the account book likely refers to Brownlow Cecil, 9th Earl of Exeter (1725-93). However, there is no mention of either of the Wright of Derby paintings in the records at Burghley House, and this would have been an uncharacteristic acquisition by Lord Exeter. It is also not clear why he would have sold the paintings after only 3 years, even if the Christie’s sale could be associated with Exeter (which it presently cannot).

Annotations in the auctioneers copy of the catalogue show that lot 82, ‘a boy blowing a bladder by candle light’, was sold to Ld. Warwick on the first day of the sale (23rd January 1772) for £8.8s, and that ‘two girls decorating a cat by candle light’ was sold to Lord Palmerston on the second day of the sale (24th January 1772). It may be telling that they were sold individually on different days, although with the same lot number. Though the sale was noted in the press, the advertisements do not mention either painting by Wright.

The buyer, ‘Ld Warwick’, probably refers to Francis Greville, 1st Earl of Warwick (1719-1773); his son, George Greville held the title of Lord Greville before his father’s death. However, the picture does not appear in the large inventories of Warwick castle dating from c.1800 and 1853. Further research would be needed to establish the provenance from the Warwick collection to the current owner.

• Key literary and exhibition references

This painting has only recently been rediscovered, as such it does not have an exhibition history.

Although it has not been previously identified in the literature, the following are key references:

Benedict Nicolson, Joseph Wright of Derby: Painter of Light, Vol. 1, , 1968, p.238-40.

Judy Egerton, Wright of Derby, London, 1990, p.53-4.

Elizabeth E. Barker and Alex Kidson, Joseph Wright of Derby in , New Haven and London, 2007, p.164-65.

Elizabeth E. Barker, ‘Documents relating to Joseph Wright ‘of Derby’ (1734-97)’, The Volume of the Walpole Society, Vol. 71 (2009), p.19.

3. Waverley criteria

Waverley 2 – It is of outstanding aesthetic importance.

This is a very fine example of Wright’s bladder subjects and exemplifies his masterful treatment of light effects. It showcases his virtuosic handling when painting fabric and the play of light.

Waverley 3 – It is of outstanding significance for the study of some particular branch of art, learning or history.

The painting is of outstanding significance to the study of art history and the history of provincial enlightenment culture in the UK. The representation of children blowing bladders was unique to Wright of Derby, as such the picture represents an important and distinct branch of his art, as well as a unique motif within the expanding and highly popular genre of fancy pictures during the late eighteenth-century. The circumstances of the picture’s making also illuminates the thriving enlightenment culture in the provinces at this time, notably Derby and Liverpool, and the opportunities and networks this provided for professional artists.

DETAILED CASE

1. Detailed description of item(s) if more than in Executive summary, and any comments.

What does it depict? The painting shows two boys, both wearing elaborate fancy dress with frilled collars and turbans, illuminated by candlelight. One boy stands in profile on the right, just in front of a table, as he blows up a bladder. The other boy is seated on the left, leaning on the table as he watches the bladder be inflated.

What does it tell us about that period? Two Boys with a Bladder is an extremely fine ‘fancy picture’, produced during the 1760s, at the moment when the genre emerged as one of the most original and popular art forms in Britain. The success and rise in fancy pictures was connected to changes in the British artworld, not least the introduction of public art exhibitions, the expansion of the print market, and the new audiences for art. The fancy picture allowed artists to showcase their skill and invention within this highly competitive environment, whilst also appealing to a broad and lucrative market through adopting new, imaginative subjects aligned with both high art and popular tastes.

Representations of children were among the most popular subjects for fancy pictures, and embodied new ways of viewing childhood. Wright’s painting highlights the intersection between art and enlightenment thinking on child development and education, particularly the new appreciation of games as a playful means for children to develop their independent strengths and capabilities.

Most likely painted whilst Wright was living and working in Liverpool between 1768 and 1771 – though with extended stays in Derby – the picture is also closely connected to the burgeoning provincial culture in the UK during the period. It attests to the success and independence artists could achieve outside London, the quality and ambition of the art being produced in the provinces at this time, and the cross-currents of ideas and people between such thriving urban hubs as Derby and Liverpool. In particular, the close observation and attention in the painting – in addition to the representation of children – speaks to the currency of enlightenment ideas in these regional centres, especially the engagement with science and technology.

Who made it/painted it/wrote it? Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797)

No. of comparable items by the same artist already in the UK, in both public and private collections? Wright of Derby is today recognised as one of the leading artists of the late eighteenth century and as such his work is prominent in collections both in the UK and internationally.

We include an appendix listing Wright’s known bladder subjects in the UK, noting their accessibility and condition.

Fancy pictures represent a significant branch of Wright’s art. Characterised by their tenebrism, these build upon an iconography rooted in 17th century Netherlandish art, including letter reading and bubble blowing. There are four variations of the letter reading subjects and one bubble blowing subject, all remaining in private collections in the UK. Wright frequently conceived his pictures as pairs and, as evidenced in Wright’s account book, this remained true of his fancy pictures. As detailed in the appendix, several of the fancy pictures and, indeed, the bladder pictures, have remained united as a pair or quartet. Of the four bladder subjects in private collections in the UK, the Two Boys Fighting over a Bladder is the most equivalent in size and figures, however the violence of the scene marks a significant departure from Wright’s other versions and, in comparison to this picture, it appears somewhat formulaic, the darkness of the scene precluding the finesse, verisimilitude and detail of Two Boys with a Bladder.

The only work that compares to Two Boys with a Bladder in terms of size, conception, and ambition, is Two Girls Dressing a Kitten by Candlelight (c.1768-70, Kenwood House, English Heritage). The two pictures are exactly the same size and correspond stylistically – they parallel one another with regards to composition, the costumes of the children, and in the detail and quality of the painting. They exemplify Wright’s fluency in painting and his mastery of light effects.

As one of Wright’s most popular subjects, there are also several copies after his bladder subjects in public collections in the UK. This includes versions of variable quality in the Ashmolean Museum, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, and Hollytrees Museum, all based upon Two Boys by Candlelight, Blowing a Bladder (c.1767-73, The Huntington), and probably known from its reproduction in aquatint by . ’s Boy and Girl with a Bladder (Derby Museum and Gallery) may derive from one of Wright’s now lost compositions. Viewed together, these copies attest to the appeal and demand for this branch of Wright’s art.

2. Detailed explanation of the outstanding significance of the item(s).

Significance of figures associated with the item: maker/client/owners? Wright of Derby is a major figure in British art history; as his soubriquet suggests, he is remarkable as one of the first painters to forge a successful career outside the metropolis. He was a pioneer of candlelight subjects in Britain and his treatment of modern science and industry as serious history painting, notably in The Air Pump, The Orrery and his series of forge pictures, is unique in eighteenth century British art. These, coupled with Wright’s own biography, represent a crucial insight into enlightenment culture and industrialisation in the provinces during this period. Though modern tastes have not always favoured Wright’s oeuvre, the public appreciation of Wright’s candlelight subjects has remained constant. Today he is internationally acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent painters of eighteenth century European art.

Significance of subject-matter? Though several major painters, notably Gainsborough and Reynolds, depicted children playing during the eighteenth century, the subject of children blowing bladders is only found in Wright’s art. Thus, it is significant as a unique motif in fancy pictures of the period and as an important and distinct branch of Wright’s oeuvre. That Wright frequently exhibited his bladder pictures, including at the Society of Artists consecutively in 1767 and 1768 and at the Royal Academy in 1789, is testament to the popularity of this subject.

Animal bladders were a common toy for children, either inflated like a balloon or filled with dried peas and shaken like rattles. In art, bladders – akin to soap bubbles – were part of a long visual tradition, their insubstantiality alluding to the emptiness and transience of material wealth and human achievement, their delicacy symbolising the fragility and brevity of life. Juxtaposed with children, as in this picture, the motif gains further poignancy as signifiers of innocence and experience. Indeed, Wright’s characteristic use of light, illuminating the faces of the two boys, may be a metaphor for the acquisition of knowledge. Coupled with the candle itself, a widely recognised symbol of mortality, Wright’s bladder pictures continue the meditation upon life and death present in such paintings as The Air Pump (1768), A Philosopher by Lamplight (or a hermit) (c.1769) and The Widow of an Indian Chief (1785). Such vanitas imagery is rooted in seventeenth-century Netherlandish art and the emblematic visual tradition, demonstrating Wright’s knowledge and speaking to the wider connections between British and European art during this period.

Significantly, when viewed alongside Two Girls Dressing a Kitten by Candlelight, its probable pendant, the associative meanings of the subject matter gain further resonance. Together they show Wright’s revitalisation of the traditional theme of innocence and experience. The children’s play is both a reminder of their youth, as Wright emphasises their delight and enjoyment in their games, as well as a lesson for the future.

Treated as a pair, the pictures also play on gender roles. Whilst the boys play rationally, steadily contemplating the inflating bladder, the girls behave cruelly in dressing up the kitten, abandoning the doll intended as a practice for their future duties. The latent sexuality of this scene reiterates that the girls are on the brink of womanhood, perhaps foreshadowing their own confinement as future wives and mothers or, indeed, their potential to use their sexuality as adults to manipulate men. The boys, on the other hand, remain free and unfettered by such social expectations and norms.

The treatment of the subject is also noteworthy: Wright uses the illumination of the candlelight to convey, in painstaking detail, the play of light upon different surfaces. In this, it continues the meticulous, scientific, observation evidenced in Wright’s most iconic paintings. This realism gives force to the symbolism, locating the moral within the viewer’s own world.

Significance of materials/process/usage? The dates for this painting are proposed on the basis of its formal and stylistic similarities to works Wright produced in the late 1760s. Though there are considerable drying cracks in the dark areas and significant areas of retouching, the faces and costumes of the boys are very finely painted and highly finished. This is perhaps most apparent in the delicate touches of highlighted impasto in the frogged jacket and tassels, the crisp folds of the frilled collars and cuffs, and the reflections on the candlestick. Wright has also adopted a warm-toned palette, significantly using a reddish-brown underpaint and juxtaposing touches of yellow and pink in the boy’s complexions, particularly where the light catches them.

This is akin to the early version of the Academy by Lamplight, in which the boys wear comparable quasi-historical costumes with Van Dyck frilled collars, painted with Wright’s characteristic attention to the texture and folds of the fabric. The pictures are similar in the brilliancy of the luminosity, conveying the flicker of the warm candlelight. Most pertinently, it bears close comparison with the tonality, palette and handling of Two Girls Dressing a Kitten. This shares Wright’s close observation of fabric and texture, notably in the deft handling of the frilled collars and cuffs and the curl of the feather worn by both the boy and girl on the right. It also shares the warm tone, reddish underpainting and yellow-pink flesh tones, as well as the crisp highlights of white.

The striking technique and unusual palette correspond with Wright’s Liverpool period, characterised as one of his most experimental periods and determined by his pursuit of ever- greater verisimilitude when capturing light effects. His Liverpool pictures reveal his adoption of reddish-brown underpaintings to create warmer toned pictures and his use of unblended touches of colour.

Wright may have used the special apparatus, described by his niece, Hannah Wright, as a large folding screen that reached from floor-to-ceiling and wall-to-wall, creating an enclosure for his illuminated subject which he could then see from all directions through various opening compartments. The mirrored still life of this painting and Two Kittens seems to support the idea that he sought to view his subject from all angles. Alternatively, if undertaken during one of his visits to Derby, it was likely painted in his brother’s house, where the rooms had a door between them so ‘that he could darken the windows in one room & introduce the proper light & the subject he intended to paint, which he could see to advantage from the other room’.

Given Wright’s ongoing exploration of dramatic , it is significant that the candlelight paintings of the 1760s and early 1770s highlight the of Wright’s technique. The bladder in this picture appears incongruous for its flat appearance and metallic quality. Wright is known to have experimented with gold or silver leaf underneath areas of light in An Academy by Lamplight (1769) and The Blacksmith’s Shop (1771), both at the Yale Center for British Art, and in Two Boys by Candlelight, Blowing a Bladder (c.1767-73, The Huntington). However, this technique was short-lived and seemingly unsuccessful in achieving Wright’s desired effect as he returned to a white ground for luminosity. Further investigation is needed to establish if this painting reveals Wright’s early experimentation with this technique or if it is, in fact, a later re-gilding.

Is/are the item(s) of local/regional/national importance? It is of regional and national importance, representative of the artistic opportunities and networks outside the metropolis and offering an alternative to the London-centric view of British art during the eighteenth century.

Two Boys Blowing a Bladder was likely painted during Wright’s time in Liverpool. He moved to the city in October 1768, where he stayed until September 1771, with the exception of extended visits back to Derby which he used as an opportunity to develop his candlelight and subject pictures. This was a highly successful and productive period in Wright’s career. The painting relates to a seminal moment in Liverpool’s history: as a prosperous and thriving city and port, this period marks its ‘urban renaissance’ with the establishment of the first artist’s society in 1769 as well as key institutions like the library and print club.

Nationally, the picture is testament to the flourishing provincial enlightenment culture throughout the UK during this period. Wright was able to maintain a thriving painting practice in the regions, primarily residing in Derby where he associated with leading scholars and entrepreneurs of the day, notably and the Strutt and Arkwright families. In particular, it illuminates the cross-current of ideas and people in the regions and their bearing upon art and patronage – through his friend, the mapmaker Peter Perez Burdett who, having worked in Derby moved to Liverpool, Wright was introduced to a circle of men at the heart of Liverpool’s cultural life, many of whom continued to be important friends and patrons throughout his life.

Summary of related items in public/private ownership in the UK Wright’s candlelight pictures are well represented in public collections in the UK, reflecting the artist’s status. These include: An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768, , London); The Iron Forge (1772, Tate); and, at Derby Museum and Art Gallery, The Orrery (exh. 1766), The Alchymist, (exh. 1771, reworked and dated 1795), A Philosopher by Lamplight (c.1769), Earthstopper on the Banks of the Derwent (1773), and The Blacksmith’s Shop (1771). These are, however, distinct in their scale, ambition and subject matter.

As an example of late eighteenth century fancy pictures, it is most comparable with the work of Henry Robert Morland as well as Henry Walton and, later, John Opie. These artists all exploited strong contrasts of light and shade in their art. Notable examples include: A Girl Singing Ballads by a Paper Lanthorn (c.1765-82, Tate) and Oyster Girl ( Museums Trust) by Morland; Plucking the Turkey by Walton (exh.1776, Tate); and Children by the Fireside by Opie (Tabley House).