''A Philosopher by lamplight'' (also known as ''A Hermit Studying Anatomy'') is a 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 ...

. It is not known when Wright painted the picture, but it was first exhibited in 1769 in London with the Society of Artists. This was one of the earliest of many lamplight or candlelight paintings and portraits for which Wright is famed.

Description

This picture was described in the catalogue of the 1801 sale as a companion to ''

The Alchemist Discovering Phosphorus ''The Alchemist Discovering Phosphorus'' is a painting by Joseph Wright of Derby originally completed in 1771 then reworked in 1795. The full title of the painting is ''The Alchymist, in Search of the Philosopher's Stone, Discovers Phosphorus, ...

''. Each has a main figure in the foreground with two subsidiary ones behind, both are night scenes and show old men engaged in scientific research. The painting shows an old man who is thought to be a philosopher or a pilgrim, examining a collection of human bones in a lamp-lit cave. Two smaller men, or boys, dressed as pilgrims (as identified by the scallop shells in their hats: the emblem of St James) seem to be approaching him. The size of these figures is a lot smaller than the main character in the painting. Outside the cave the dark landscape is lit by the moonlight breaking through the clouds. Shells were the sign of pilgrims but they were also the emblem of the Darwin family which included

Erasmus Darwin Erasmus Robert Darwin (12 December 173118 April 1802) was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave-trade abolitionist, inventor, and poet. His poems ...

who was a leading member of the

Lunar Society The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a British dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 ...

and

Derby Philosophical Society The Derby Philosophical Society was a club for gentlemen in Derby founded in 1783 by Erasmus Darwin. The club had many notable members and also offered the first institutional library in Derby that was available to some section of the public. P ...

which linked key men in the age of enlightenment. Experts believe that this painting was based on

Salvator Rosa Salvator Rosa (1615 –1673) is best known today as an Italian Baroque painter, whose romanticized landscapes and history paintings, often set in dark and untamed nature, exerted considerable influence from the 17th century into the early 19th ...

's ''Democritus in Meditation''. Wright’s friend

John Hamilton Mortimer John Hamilton Mortimer (17 September 1740 – 4 February 1779) was a British figure and landscape painter and printmaker, known for romantic paintings set in Italy, works depicting conversations, and works drawn in the 1770s portraying war ...

was a follower of Rosa’s so it is possible that Wright would have seen Rosa's work or an engraving of it. Democritus was a Greek philosopher who is remembered for making fun of the foolishness of mankind. Though the painting's subtitle is ''A Hermit Studying Anatomy'', his attitude towards the bones he is holding does not suggest particularly serious scrutiny. He is surrounded by symbols of the ephemeral nature of the human condition which include the skeleton, a lamp that will burn all its fuel, the moon which has to be reborn every four weeks and an hour glass. The moon was also the symbol of the

which Wright was strongly associated with although he never became a member. The preoccupation of the philosopher and trepidation of the two pilgrims may be a reflection on concerns about the new scientific understanding and enlightenment at the time Wright lived.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Philosopher by Lamplight Paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby Collections of Derby Museum and Art Gallery Cultural depictions of philosophers 1769 paintings Moon in art