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Creator:
Joseph Wright of Derby, 1734–1797
Title:

The Blacksmith's Shop

Date:
1771
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
50 1/2 x 41 inches (128.3 x 104.1 cm), Frame: 55 1/2 × 45 1/4 inches (141 × 114.9 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
Link to Frame:
B1981.25.712FR
Subject Terms:
angels | anvil (tool) | apprentices | blacksmiths | boys | children | church | clouds | contrast | genre subject | horseshoes (animal equipment) | labor | light | machines | metal | monastery | moon | moonlight | night | religious (people) | ruins | shop | tools | woman | workers
Access:
On view at the Yale University Art Gallery
Note: To make an appointment to see this work, please contact the Paintings and Sculpture department at ycba.paintings@yale.edu. Please visit the Paintings and Sculpture collections page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:5042
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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


The most remarkable quality of this highly unusual representation of a commonplace rural activity is that with perfect visual clarity, Wright describes the process of making a horseshoe, "showing in detail what the various workers' tools and machines look like and what they do," as the scholar David Fraser has put it. But by his remarkable treatment of light, Wright gives the impression that something is happening that is of far greater dramatic, even historical significance. The smithy is housed in a dilapidated religious building, most likely an abandoned church or monastery. Above the arch to the left is the carved figure of an angel. The scene as a whole carries religious overtones, recalling traditional images of the Nativity: Wright has transformed the Adoration of Christ into a hymn to the dignity of human labor, strength, and skill.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005
In an account book dating probably to the late 1760s, Wright of Derby recorded the following idea for a "Night Piece":
Two Men forming a Bar of Iron into a horse shoe - from whence the light must proceed. An Idle fellow may stand by the Anvil, in a time-killing posture, his hands in his bosom, or yawning with his hands stretched upwards - a little twisting of the Body. Horse Shoes hanging upon Ye walls, and other necessary things, faintly seen being remote from the light - Out of this Room, shall be seen another, in Wch a farier may be shoeing a horse by the light of a Candle. The horse must be Sadled and a Traveler standing by The Servant may appear with his horse in his hand - on Wch may be a portmanteau - This will be an indication of an Accident having happen'd, & shew some reason for shoeing the horse by Candle Light - The Moon may appear and illumine some part of the horse if necessary.1
In the Blacksmith's Shop he has translated these ideas into pictorial form; in fact, between 1771 and 1773, he painted three variations on this theme as well as two of the related but slightly more modern subject of workers in iron forges. Of the three paintings representing blacksmiths' shops, the Center's version most closely adheres to his original idea. Bought by Lord Melbourne for £150 while still "on the easel" in the painter's studio, the painting is a dramatic nocturnal vision of a smithy, located in a ramshackle building whose thatched roof has fallen into disrepair, gaping open to the moonlit sky. Curiously, the building in which the three smiths work is not a simple stone edifice but what appears to be a converted religious building, most likely an abandoned church or perhaps a monastery. Throughout the countryside it was common in the eighteenth century to see such disused structures adapted into workspaces, and Wright seems to take a delight in such country pragmatism: the vestiges of a grandly appointed building, with fluted columns, arched doorways, and stone floors provide a startling setting for the hardworking blacksmiths and their apprentices. Although highly suggestive of a "real" place, painted with careful attention to detail (especially in the tools strewn about the floor or the horseshoes hanging from pins nailed into the brick wall), his smithy is imaginary. Within this intense atmosphere the smiths focus tightly on their workaday tasks, seemingly unperturbed by the late hour; theirs is a labor of dignity and force, almost heroic in its ardor.
The painting is full of religious overtones, most explicit in the angelic stone figure carved in the spandrel above the arch. The composition readily prompts comparison with nocturnal representations of the Nativity, in which figures similarly huddle together around a central object from which emanates a brilliant light, but through his substitution of the glowing Christ-child with a white-hot iron bar that the smiths hammer into a horseshoe, Wright has transformed an Adoration into an adoration of human strength and skill.
This overtly spiritual (but in no way sentimental) depiction of the ancient craft of smithery seems at odds with Wright's by-then famous paintings of more scientifically progressive subjects. In the context of his five paintings of smiths and forges, the Blacksmith's Shop is best understood as the exploration of the spectacle of the traditional occupation as compared to its more modern form. Rendering each method equally spectacular and heroic, Wright does not choose one above the other. Perhaps this painting-along with his other images that focus on the transformative, almost magical powers of light-can be seen as a pictorial analogy for his own labors as a painter, a testament to his own role as a visual craftsman.

[1] Egerton 1990, 98.

Julia Marciari-Alexander

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)

Crafting Worldviews: European Instruments of Art and Science from Yale University (Yale University Art Gallery, 2023-02-17 - 2023-06-25) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-05-22 - 2008-08-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Joseph Wright of Derby in Liverpool (Walker Art Gallery, 2007-11-17 - 2008-02-24) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney (The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, 2002-02-01 - 2002-05-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney (Yale Center for British Art, 2001-09-27 - 2001-12-30) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Joseph Wright of Derby (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1990-09-06 - 1990-12-02) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Joseph Wright of Derby (Musée du Louvre, 1990-05-17 - 1990-07-23) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Joseph Wright of Derby (Tate Britain, 1990-02-07 - 1990-04-22) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

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) [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) [YCBA]

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

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

David Bindman, The History of British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2008, pp. 182-83 (v.2), ffig. 116, N6761 +H57 2008 Oversize (YCBA) [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) [ORBIS]

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) [YCBA]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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) [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) [YCBA]

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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. [YCBA]

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) [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) [YCBA]

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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) [YCBA]

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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 [ORBIS]

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