Joseph Wright 'of Derby', 'An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump', 1768

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump

Joseph Wright 'of Derby'

Room 34

About the work

Overview

An audience has gathered around a lecturer to watch an experiment. It is night, and the room is lit by a single candle that burns behind a large rounded glass containing a diseased human skull. A white cockatoo has been placed in a glass container from which the air is being pumped to create a vacuum. Will the lecturer expel the air completely and kill the bird, or allow the air back in and revive it? Wright focuses on the viewers‘ differing reactions – from the girl unable to watch to the lovers with eyes only for each other.

This is the largest, most ambitious and dramatic of the series of ’candlelight' pictures Wright painted during the 1760s. It captures the drama of a staged scientific experiment but it also functions as a vanitas – a painting concerning the passing of time, the limits of human knowledge and the frailty of life itself.

In-depth

It is night in a grand private house: through the window the moon gleams behind a cloud. A travelling lecturer, with all the drama of a magician, fixes his gaze upon us. An audience of men, women and children are gathered around him to watch the experiment he is conducting. The room is lit by a single candle that burns out of sight on the polished table behind a large rounded glass containing a diseased human skull. The candlelight is diffused through the murky liquid and illuminates the faces of the observers, casting deep, dramatic shadows – every furrow of the lecturer’s brow and curl of his silver hair is heightened.

A rare white cockatoo has been taken from its cage and placed in a glass container from which the air is being pumped to create a vacuum. The cockatoo convulses in distress as it struggles to breathe. With one hand raised, the lecturer has the god-like power over life or death – he can either expel the air completely and kill the bird or allow the air back in and revive it. A gentleman times the experiment on his pocket watch, while the youth seated beside him leans in for a closer view. The lecturer points to the ticking watch and, with his other hand on the air valve, looks to us as though the decision is ours.

The little girl observes the bird with fascination, but her elder sister cannot bear to watch and covers her eyes. Her father places his arm around her shoulder, perhaps to reassure her, or to explain that all living creatures must one day die. The boy beside the window waits, rope in hand, to see whether he will need to lower the cage for the reprieved bird. The young couple beside the lecturer only have eyes for each other. They are Thomas Coltman and Mary Barlow, friends of the artist who were to marry in 1769 and sit for their double portrait, Mr and Mrs Thomas Coltman. The elderly man on the right contemplates the skull, lost in thought. The skull and candle are emblems of mortality, but Joseph Wright’s painting leaves us uncertain of the outcome for the bird.

Paintings such as this fitted into none of the generally accepted categories of British art. Its subject was not from literature, it was too modern to be a history painting and too serious to be a conversation piece. The Air Pump captures the drama of a staged scientific experiment but it is also a modern-day vanitas – a reminder of the passing of time, the limits of human knowledge and the frailty of life itself.

During the 1760s Wright painted a series of ‘candlelight’ pictures of increasing complexity. A Girl reading a Letter by Candlelight, with a Young Man peering over her Shoulder (private collection) of about 1760–2 was probably the first. In it, Wright has observed the dramatic effects of light thrown upwards by candlelight onto the girl’s face and the more shadowy face of the man behind her. Wright’s use of strong directional light and deep shadow to create drama was new in British art. Three Persons viewing the Gladiator by Candlelight, exhibited in 1765 (private collection), shows three men studying a copy of one of the most famous sculptures of antiquity, the Borghese Gladiator, conveying the excitement of the acquisition of knowledge. The following year, in 1766, Wright exhibited A Philosopher giving that Lecture on the Orrery, in which a Lamp is put in place of the Sun (Derby Art Gallery). The ellipses of the candlelit orrery demonstrate the movement of the earth around the sun. Wright had realised that a scene communicating ‘the Pleasures of Science’ to men, women and children with different levels of knowledge could be made into a dramatic painting on a large scale.

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, exhibited two years later, is even larger than The Orrery and the most ambitious and theatrical of all Wright’s candlelight pictures. The experiment was not new in 1768 as it had been invented over a century before, but what was new was showing its impact on ordinary people. The public probably only encountered ’science‘ in the form of demonstrations by travelling lecturers, usually in town halls or, as here, privately by invitation. In The Air Pump, Wright celebrates the new appetite for learning.

His first idea for the picture is painted in oils on the back of his Self portrait of about 1767–8 (private collection). In the oil sketch there are fewer figures: the father and girls are present, as is the older man and the gentleman with the pocket watch. However, the lecturer is less dramatic, positioned to the side of the air pump and demonstrating the experiment on a small bird, primarily to the girls. Wright’s final version, with the air pump in the centre of the canvas, gives much greater prominence and power to the lecturer and heightens the drama of the scene.

In The Air Pump, Wright carries out his own experiment into what happens to colours as they recede from the light. The lecturer’s showy red robe is of light red damask woven with arabesques; salmon pink in the candlelight, but darkening to magenta as the eye travels further from the light. The girls’ dresses transform from pale lilac to purple and then to black. The little girls are the most brightly lit figures, and their reactions to the bird’s fate the most extreme. The polished surface of the table reflects the light and the objects on it and surrounding it. The younger girl’s arm can be seen through the glass bottle of translucent amber liquid lit by the candle, and shadows loom across the walls. Where the light does not reach – beneath the table – colour and form disappear altogether into blackness. Light and dark – as much as life and death – are the subjects of Wright’s dramatic, monumental canvas.

Want to find out more?

Delve deeper and explore the catalogue entry for this painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump
Artist: Joseph Wright 'of Derby'
Artist dates: 1734 - 1797
Date made: 1768
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 183 × 244 cm
Acquisition credit: Presented by Edward Tyrrell, 1863
Inventory number: NG725
Location: Room 34
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 19th-century English Frame

Provenance

Purchased from the artist for £200 by Dr Benjamin Bates, by whom given or bequeathed to Walter Tyrrell; Edward Tyrrell, by whom offered (as ‘the property of a gentleman’) at Christie’s, 8 July 1854 (163), bt in; presented by Edward Tyrrell to the National Gallery 1863.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Judy Egerton, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings’, London 2000; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2009

Matthew Boulton: Selling What All the World Desires

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

30 May 2009 - 27 September 2009
2009

Can Art Save Us?

Millennium Gallery

22 October 2009 - 30 January 2010
2012

Goya y el infante Don Luis: el exilio y el reino

Palacio Real (Madrid)

23 October 2012 - 20 January 2013
2015

Long Loan to Tate Britain (2015 - 2016)

Tate Britain

30 March 2015 - 8 July 2016
2017

Air: Visualising the Invisible in British Art 1768-2017

Royal West of England Academy

16 June 2017 - 3 September 2017
2020

Loan to the Galleria degli Uffizi

Gallerie degli Uffizi

3 October 2020 - 24 January 2021
2022

Science and the Sublime: A Masterpiece by Joseph Wright of Derby

The Huntington, Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens

12 February 2022 - 30 May 2022

Bibliography

1760

J. Ferguson, Lectures on Select Subjects, London 1760
1768

Society of Artists of Great Britain, A Catalogue of the Pictures, Sculptures, Designs in Architecture, Models, Drawings, Prints, etc.: Which the Society of Artists of Great Britain Have the Honour to Exhibit to His Majesty the King of Denmark at Their Room in Spring-Garden. September the Thirtieth, 1768, London 1768
1768

Society of Artists of Great Britain, A Catalogue of the Pictures, Sculptures, Designs in Architecture, Models, Drawings, Prints, etc: Exhibited at the Great Room in Spring-Garden, Charing-Cross, April the twenty-eighth, 1768, by the Society of Artists of Great-Britain, Incorporated by His Majesty's Royal Charter (exh. cat. Society of Artists of Great-Britain, Great Room, Spring Garden, Charing-Cross, 21 April 1768), London 1768
1772

J. Ferguson, Lectures on Select Subjects in Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, and Optics: With the Use of the Globes, the Art of Dialing, and the Calculation of the Mean Times of New and Full Moons and Eclipses, London 1772
1866

R. Redgrave and S. Redgrave, A Century of Painters of the English School: With Critical Notices of Their Works and An Account of the Progress of Art in England, London 1866
1867

E. Henderson, Life of James Ferguson, F.R.S, Edinburgh 1867
1907

A. Graves, The Society of Artists of Great Britain 1760-1791: The Free Society of Artists 1761-1783: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and Their Work from The Foundation of the Societies to 1791, London 1907
1923

F.W. Shurlock, 'The Scientific Pictures of Joseph Wright', Science Progress, XVII, 1923, pp. 432-8
1934

F. Williamson, Wright of Derby: Catalogue of the Bi-Centenary Exhibition of Paintings by Joseph Wright, A.R.A. (exh. cat. Corporation Art Gallery, 3 September - 18 November 1934), Derby 1934
1947

Derby Art Gallery, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Joseph Wright, A.R.A. (exh. cat. Derby Art Gallery, 4 October - 29 October 1947), Derby 1947
1953

E.K. Waterhouse, Painting in Britain 1530-1790, London 1953
1958

F. Maddison, 'An Eighteenth-Century Orrery by Thomas Heath and Some Earlier Orreries', The Connoisseur, CXLI, 1958, pp. 163-4
1958

E. Robinson, 'Joseph Wright of Derby: The Philosopher's Painter', The Burlington Magazine, C/663, 1958
1958

B. Nicolson et al., Joseph Wright of Derby 1734-1797: An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings (exh. cat. Tate Gallery, 1 April to 18 May 1958; Walker Art Gallery, 31 May to 21 June 1958), London 1958
1962

C. Tracy (ed.), The Poetical Works of Richard Savage, Cambridge 1962
1963

R.F. Schofield, The Lunar Society of Birmingham, Oxford 1963
1970

I. Hall, William Constable as Patron 1721-1791 (exh. cat. Ferens Art Gallery, 27 January - 22 February 1970), Hull 1970
1972

M. Wynne, 'Thomas Frye (1710-1762)', The Burlington Magazine, CXIV/827, 1972, pp. 79-84
1974

K. Garlick, 'A Catalogue of Pictures at Althorp', The Walpole Society, XLV, 1976, pp. 1-128
1976

W.H. Adams, The Eye of Thomas Jefferson (exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1976), Washington 1976
1977

M. Bennett, 'Boy with a Candle', The Burlington Magazine, CXIX, 1977, pp. 856-7
1977

M. Wynne, 'A Pastel by Thomas Frye', British Museum Yearbook, II, 1977, pp. 242-4
1979

S. Lindroth, 1700-tal: Tanke och form i rokokon (The Eighteenth Century: Thought and Form in the Rococo Era) (exh. cat. Nationalmuseum, 5 October 1979 - 6 January 1980), Stockholm 1979
1979

B. Nicolson, 'Artificial Light in Painting in the 17th Century', in L. Vertova (ed.), Caravaggism in Europe, Turin 1979, vol. 1, pp. 25-8
1986

W. Busch, Joseph Wright of Derby: Das Experiment mit der Luftpumpe: Eine heilige Allianz zwischen Wissenschaft und Religion, Frankfurt am Main 1986
1986

J. Sunderl, 'John Hamilton Mortimer: His Life and Works', The Walpole Society, LII, 1986, pp. 1-270
1987

W. Schupbach, 'A Select Iconography of Animal Experiment', in N.A. Rupke (ed.), Vivisection in Historical Perspective, London 1987, pp. 340-7
1988

P.-M. de Biasi (ed.), Gustav Flaubert: Carnets du travail, Paris 1988
1988

J.R. Millburn, Wheelwright of the Heavens: The Life and Work of James Ferguson, F.R.S, London 1988
1988

A. Moore, Dutch and Flemish Painting in Norfolk: A History of Taste and Influence, Fashion and Collecting (exh. cat. Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, 10 September - 20 November 1988), London 1988
1990

J. Egerton, Joseph Wright of Derby, 1734-1797 (exh. cat. Tate Gallery, 7 February - 22 April 1990; Grand Palais, 17 May - 23 July 1990; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 6 September - 2 December 1990), London 1990
1992

D.H. Solkin, 'ReWrighting Shaftesbury: The Air Pump and the Limits of Commercial Humanism', in J. Barrell (ed.), Painting and the Politics of Culture: New Essays on British Art, 1700-1850, Oxford 1992, pp. 73-99
1993

R. Holmes, Dr Johnson and Mr Savage, London 1993
1993

D.H. Solkin, Painting for Money: The Visual Arts and the Public Sphere in Eighteenth-Century England, New Haven 1993
1994

B.M. Stafford, Artful Science, Cambridge MA 1994
1995

C. Wright, Masters of Candlelight, Landshut 1995
1995

A. Laing, In Trust for the Nation: Paintings from National Trust Houses (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 22 November 1995 - 10 March 1996), London 1995
1998

J. Egerton, The British School, London 1998
1999

S.L. Siegfried, 'Engaging the Audience: Sexual Economies of Vision in Joseph Wright', Representations, LXVIII, 1999, pp. 34-58
1999

P. Wagner, 'Penser la science en termes de différences sexuelles: Une expérience sur un oiseau dans une pompe à air de Joseph Wright of Derby', Dix-huitième siècle, 31, 1999, pp. 283-301
2000

Egerton, Judy, National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings, revised edn, London 2000
2000

G. Frese, Dow Chemical Portrayed: The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation's Collection of the Art Works of Arthur Henry Knighton-Hammond (exh. cat. Chemical Heritage Foundation, 2000), Philadelphia 2000
2000

S. Krifka, 'Schauexperiment: Wissenschaft als belehrendes Spektakel', in H. Holländer (ed.), Studien zur Bildgeschichte von Naturwissenschaften und Technik vom 16. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert, Berlin 2000, pp. 773-88
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2001

R. Asleson, British Paintings at the Huntington, San Marino 2001
2001

M. Bailey (ed.), The Folio Society Book of the 100 Greatest Paintings, London 2001
2001

M. Helmers, 'Painting as a Rhetorical Performance: Joseph Wright's an Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump', JAC: Journal of Rhetoric, Culture and Politics, XXI/1, 2001, pp. 71-95
2001

F. Russell, 'Addenda to Wright of Derby: Two Boston Sitters and an Eton Leaving Portrait', The Burlington Magazine, CXLIII/1181, 2001, pp. 489-90
2002

M. Umbach, 'Classicism, Enlightenment and the "Other": Thoughts on Decoding Eighteenth-Century Visual Culture', Art History, XXV/3, 2002, pp. 319-40
2003

J. Bryant, Kenwood: Paintings in the Iveagh Bequest, New Haven 2003
2003

D.H. Solkin, 'Joseph Wright of Derby and the Sublime Art of Labor', Representations, LXXXIII, 2003, pp. 167-94
2004

B. Sørensen, 'Sir William Hamilton's Vesuvian Apparatus', Apollo, CLIX/507, 2004, pp. 50-7
2007

M. Hopkinson, 'Notes: Valentine Green's Mezzotint after Wright of Derby', Print Quarterly, XXIV/1, 2007, pp. 45-6
2007

D. Donald, 'Joseph Wright's "An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump"', in Picturing Animals in Britain, 1750-1850, New Haven 2007, pp. 1-26
2009

E.E. Barker, 'Joseph Wright of Derby', The Walpole Society, LXXI, 2009, pp. 1-216
2010

P. Duro, '"Great and Noble Ideas of the Moral Kind": Wright of Derby and the Scientific Sublime', Art History, XXXIII/4, 2010, pp. 660-79

Frame

This is a nineteenth-century English frame, made in a seventeenth-century Italian style. The frame is crafted from pinewood with mitred corners, and is oil-gilded. A lamb’s-tongue motif is on the back edge. The outer moulding has a large acanthus-leaf motif, a double bead-and-reel motif, a sanded flat and an acanthus-leaf sight edge.

In the nineteenth century, the framers Messrs Wright of Wardour Street carved and gilded a frame for Veronese’s The Adoration of the Kings, from which reproductions were made from a pressed composition. These reproductions were paired with Veronese’s The Family of Darius before Alexander, Van Dyck’s Equestrian Portrait of Charles I and Rubens’s The Brazen Serpent. The frame on the latter was converted in 1863 to fit Wright of Derby’s An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump.

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

Insights

Joseph Wright hailed from Derby, a city at the centre of the Industrial Revolution. What can we learn from 'An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump' about this advancing time and how does this painting represent the Enlightenment that was taking place around him? Unpick and explore the references scattered throughout this masterpiece with Adult Learning Programmer Matthew Morgan.

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An enlightened experiment | Joseph Wright 'of Derby' | National Gallery

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Mr and Mrs Thomas Coltman

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Born in 1747, Thomas Coltman inherited Hagnaby Priory, near East Kirkby in Lincolnshire, in 1768. He and his wife Mary Barlow are portrayed here probably a year or so after their marriage in October 1789. The couple can also be seen in Wright’s great painting An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pu...

Room 34