''A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery'', or the full title, ''A Philosopher giving that Lecture on the Orrery in which a lamp is put in place of the Sun'', is a 1766 painting by

Joseph Wright of Derby Joseph Wright (3 September 1734 – 29 August 1797), styled Joseph Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution". Wr ...

depicting a lecturer giving a demonstration of an

orrery An orrery is a mechanical model of the Solar System that illustrates or predicts the relative positions and motions of the planets and moons, usually according to the heliocentric model. It may also represent the relative sizes of these bodies ...

– a mechanical model of the solar system – to a small audience. It is now in the

Derby Museum and Art Gallery Derby Museum and Art Gallery is a museum and art gallery in Derby, England. It was established in 1879, along with Derby Central Library, in a new building designed by Richard Knill Freeman and given to Derby by Michael Thomas Bass. The colle ...

The painting preceded his similar ''

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump ''An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump'' is a 1768 oil-on-canvas painting by Joseph Wright of Derby, one of a number of candlelit scenes that Wright painted during the 1760s. The painting departed from convention of the time by depicting a ...

'' (

National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director of ...

). The first of Wright's candlelit masterpieces, ''

Three Persons Viewing the Gladiator by Candlelight ''Three Persons Viewing the Gladiator by Candlelight'' is a 1765 painting by Joseph Wright of Derby and now resides in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool nited Kingdom It depicts three men examining a reproduction of the Borghese Gladiator, a ...

'', was painted in 1765, and showed three men studying a small copy of the "

Borghese Gladiator The ''Borghese Gladiator'' is a Hellenistic life-size marble sculpture portraying a swordsman, created at Ephesus about 100 BC, now on display at the Louvre. Sculptor The sculpture is signed on the pedestal by Agasias, son of Dositheus, who i ...

". The ''Gladiator'' was greatly admired; but his next painting, ''The Orrery'', caused a greater stir, as it replaced the Classical subject at the centre of the scene with one of a scientific nature. Wright's depiction of the awe produced by scientific "miracles" marked a break with previous traditions in which the artistic depiction of such wonder was reserved for religious events, since to Wright the marvels of the technological age were as awe-inspiring as the subjects of the great religious paintings. In both of these works, the candlelit setting had a realist justification. Viewing sculpture by candlelight, when the contours showed well, and there might even be an impression of movement from the flickering light, was a fashionable practice described by

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

. In the orrery demonstration the shadows cast by the lamp representing the sun were an essential part of the display. But there seems no reason other than heightened drama to stage the air pump experiment in a room lit by a single candle, and in two later paintings of the subject by

Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo Charles-Amédée-Philippe van Loo (25 August 1719 – 15 November 1795) was a French painter of allegorical scenes and portraits. He studied under his father, the painter Jean-Baptiste van Loo, at Turin and Rome, where in 1738 he won the Pr ...

the lighting is normal.

Context

The painting was one of a number of British works challenging the set categories of the rigid, French-dictated,

hierarchy of genres A hierarchy of genres is any formalization which ranks different genres in an art form in terms of their prestige and cultural value. In literature, the epic was considered the highest form, for the reason expressed by Samuel Johns ...

in the late 18th century, as other types of painting aspired to be treated as seriously as the costumed

history painting History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bible ...

of a Classical or mythological subject. In some respects the ''Orrery'' and ''Air Pump'' subjects resembled

conversation pieces Conversation Pieces is a reworking of the Animated Conversations concept. It consists of a series of five shorts which aired on Channel Four between 1982 and 1983. Each of the 5 shorts were five minutes long. As AllAboutAardman explains, "in the ...

, then largely a form of middle-class portraiture, though soon to be given new status when

Johann Zoffany Johan Joseph Zoffany (born Johannes Josephus Zaufallij; 13 March 1733 – 11 November 1810) was a German neoclassical painter who was active mainly in England, Italy and India. His works appear in many prominent British collections, includin ...

began to paint the royal family in about 1766. Given their solemn atmosphere however, and as it seems none of the figures are intended to be understood as portraits (even if models may be identified), the paintings can not be regarded as conversation pieces. The 20th-century art historian

Ellis Waterhouse Sir Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse (16 February 1905 – 7 September 1985) was an English art historian and museum director who specialised in Roman baroque and English painting. He was Director of the National Galleries of Scotland (1949–52) a ...

compares these two works to the "''genre serieux''" of contemporary French drama, as defined by

Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the '' Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promi ...

and

Pierre Beaumarchais Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (; 24 January 1732 – 18 May 1799) was a French polymath. At various times in his life, he was a watchmaker, inventor, playwright, musician, diplomat, spy, publisher, horticulturist, arms dealer, satirist, ...

, a view endorsed by Egerton. An anonymous review from the time called Wright "a very great and uncommon genius in a peculiar way".Solkin 1994, p. 234

Provenance, and portraits

''The Orrery'' was painted without a commission, probably in the expectation that it would be bought by Washington Shirley, 5th Earl Ferrers, a British Royal Navy officer who had an

of his own, and with whom Wright's friend

Peter Perez Burdett Peter Perez Burdett (c. 1734 – 9 September 1793) was an 18th-century cartographer, surveyor, artist, and draughtsman originally from Eastwood in Essex where he inherited a small estate and chose the name ''Perez'' from the birth surname o ...

was staying while in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

. Figures thought to be portraits of Burdett and Ferrers feature in the painting, Burdett taking notes and Ferrers seated with a youth next to the orrery. Ferrers purchased the painting, which was exhibited in 1766, for £210, but the 6th Earl auctioned it off, and it is now in the

,Uglow 2002, p. 123 where it is on permanent display, close to a working replica of a full-sized mechanical Grand Orrery. A biographer of Wright,

Benedict Nicolson Lionel Benedict Nicolson (6 August 1914 – 22 May 1978) was a British art historian and author. Nicolson was the elder son of authors Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West and the brother of writer and politician Nigel. His godmothers ...

, argued in 1968 that

John Whitehurst John Whitehurst FRS (10 April 1713 – 18 February 1788), born in Cheshire, England, was a clockmaker and scientist, and made significant early contributions to geology. He was an influential member of the Lunar Society. Life and work Whit ...

was the model for the lecturer, while another commentator points out the figure's resemblance to "a painting of

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, Theology, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosophy, natural philosopher"), widely ...

Godfrey Kneller Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1st Baronet (born Gottfried Kniller; 8 August 1646 – 19 October 1723), was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to English and British monarchs from ...

". Close observation of the adult faces in the picture reveals that each one demonstrates one or other of the main

phases of the Moon Concerning the lunar month of ~29.53 days as viewed from Earth, the lunar phase or Moon phase is the shape of the Moon's directly sunlit portion, which can be expressed quantitatively using areas or angles, or described qualitatively using the t ...

– new moon, half moon, gibbous moon and full moon. Jonathan Powers, in ''The Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery'', claims that 'the Philosopher' was John Arden, a scholar and lecturer best known for teaching the young

Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...

Notes

References

* * * *Egerton, Judy (1998), National Gallery Catalogues (new series): ''The British School''. catalogue entry pp. 332–343, * * * * * * * Waterhouse, Ellis, (4th Edn, 1978) ''Painting in Britain, 1530–1790''. Penguin Books (now Yale History of Art series), {{DEFAULTSORT:Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery Paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby 1766 paintings Science in art Historical scientific instruments Collections of Derby Museum and Art Gallery Paintings of children