The Plate of “The Twins” was especially etched for this work, and presented to the Author by Mr. F. Seymour Haden.
CHAPTER III.
Candle-Light Subjects.—“The Gladiator” Picture.—Commences to Paint Landscapes in 1772.—List of Pictures Exhibited at the Society of Artists’ Rooms.—List of Pictures Exhibited at the Royal Academy.—Wright holds an Exhibition in 1785, of his Own Works, in London.—Wright’s Generosity in Giving Pictures to his Friends.—Wright, a Pioneer in Water-Colour Painting.
It is interesting to note in the life of an artist who showed such varied talents, at what periods he entered on the different walks of art, which he trod with such success. We know that Wright painted portraits only whilst under Hudson’s tuition; and even for several years after his second period of study under that master, which was during the year 1756, he seems to have attempted nothing else. We are also able to all but fix the dates of many of his early candle-light and historical subjects, because they were exhibited at the rooms of the Society of Artists.[7] The first of these appeared in 1765, and was called “Three Persons Viewing the Gladiator[8] by Candle-light.” In the same way we can fix approximately the date of his first landscape as 1772.
From such records we may also conclude with some certainty that it was Wright’s own innate genius that impelled him to study those effects of artificial light with which his name is so strongly associated, for hitherto no English painter had attempted them, and he did not leave England till 1773.