The Blacksmith's Shop

Enlightenment

Joseph Wright of Derby

The Blacksmith's Shop

1771

Oil on canvas, 50 1/2 × 41 in. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven

White-hot iron on the anvil is the main light in the scene: manual work made the subject of a large, dramatic night piece.

Look at

  • Faces and shirts nearest the anvil glow yellow, a second fire burns low behind the figures at left, and the rest of the shop sinks into brown dark.
  • The figures bend in a ring around the anvil, and the man in silhouette at left frames it.
  • A small cool patch of moonlit sky at upper right is the one contrast to the forge's warm light.
  • Signed and dated 1771 at lower right; Paul Mellon Collection.

Image: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection · CC0 (Yale Center for British Art open access)

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