In a closely-cropped composition, a boy intently reads a book resting on a table. Light, presumably from a nearby window, falls softly from the left and illuminates his hair, face, clothes, and the pages of his book. The scene is entirely described in powdery grisaille pastel which diffuses the light and heightens its subtle transitions and reflections. Joseph Wright of Derby is now most famous for his genre paintings featuring effects of strong artificial light in dark settings.
This drawing relates to A Philosopher giving that lecture on the Orrery, in which a lamp is put in place of the Sun (Derby Museum), exhibited in 1766; the features of the reading boy in the drawing are extremely similar to those of a boy pictured in the foreground of the painting. The Orrery painting was bought by Washington Shirley, 5th Earl Ferrers, and family tradition notes that the boy shown in the foreground was his nephew Laurence Rowland (1757-73), who would have been nine or ten years old at the time.
Although not a direct study for the painting (the lighting is different), the identification—and link between painting and drawing—is compelling and has been reinforced in recent publications. The subtle light effects in the drawing and the close-set rendering of the scene evoke the print medium of mezzotint, with which Wright was acquainted and which was successfully used to reproduce his paintings and anticipates the aesthetics of nineteenth-century photography.
Text: J. Paul Getty Trust, CC BY 4.0.
